


Gold Hour

by Freyjabee



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, F/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2020-02-04 14:33:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 65,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18606475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Freyjabee/pseuds/Freyjabee
Summary: Natsu is bored in a life of stuffy propriety. He was built for rougher things but the Crown Prince needs to keep up appearances. During the daylight hours.





	1. Chapter 1

Torch flame cast shadow demons on the ground. They were brazen and lapped at the crunchy blades of dead grass and, when that wasn't enough, grabbed at the tattered boots on Natsu's feet. He'd had Happy procure them from a vagabond on the street corner that morning, beginning a plan he had been stewing on for days. Weeks. Months. Years, maybe even. They fit him badly and were bulging at the seams. The previous owner had much wider feet than he did.

"Your Highness—"

"I told you not to call me that, Happy. Not ever but especially not _here_."

" _Natsu_ ," Happy reiterated. "This is a really bad idea."

"So you've said."

"What's his Majesty going to think?"

" _Zeref_ is going to think the same thing he always does," Natsu emphasised. " _You're impulsive Natsu. And bored. Take a wife, Natsu. Have children and you'll no longer have the energy to bother me, Natsu._ "

"Does he actually say that?"

Natsu chose not to answer. Most of his attention needed to be spent navigating the wasteland of scrubby meadow and sparse trees. He came up a huge hill and the ring he'd heard whispered about around the castle came into view. He could feel the cheers of men reverberating right through his bones and wanted more than anything to be there, not to cheer with them but to be cheered _for_.

On his way down the hill, he parted with the jacket he'd brought from his time training to be Captain of the King's Army. The title had been stripped of him before he'd ever gotten it. _Too impulsive_ again. He didn't think things through. Charge first, plan after. It got men killed.

He was still waiting to see who would be named his predecessor.

He got closer and the unmistakable sound of flesh hitting flesh gave him a thrill. Happy took the jacket from his hand and looked at him critically. "You're serious about this?"

"Deadly."

"He's going to find out you were out here."

"So what?"

"So he'll close it down," Happy reasoned. "He'll put you in his throne room every day to listen to people complain. Or punish you in some other way."

He was so bored lately, he didn't care. "I'll deal with that if the time comes."

Happy sighed. "At least fix your hair. People will recognize you."

He was right. Natsu stopped outside of the clearing and used his magic to raze a sapling to ash. He then combed it through his hair to hide the colour and thusly his identity. "How's that?"

Happy fixed his hair some then smeared more on his face to make him less recognizable. "Passable. Let me go in first. I'll arrange the fight for you."

"Not a chance," Natsu said. The last time he'd had an idea like this he'd wanted to go to Blue Pegasus, a pub by the docks. Happy had _accidentally_ let slip a _Your Highness_ and he was ferried out by Master Bob and escorted back to the castle with a plethora of armed guards well before he could even order a beer. Heaven forbid the Crown Prince didn't have an army at his feet at all times.

The fight was won and the crowd cheered. The announcer went into the ring and stuffed the winner's palm with a roll of cash. The man grinned. His teeth were bloody but all there, his knuckles bruised and split. He was shirtless and barely any sweat beaded his skin. His last opponent hadn't given him much of a fight.

The announcer asked, "Any sad sack among you wish t' challenge our reigning champion?"

"I will," Natsu said loudly and clearly.

"Who spoke?" The announcer searched over the heads of the crowd.

"Me." Natsu held his breath stepping into the ring of torches. If anyone recognized him now, it'd be all over.

 _Your Highness_ and _Crown Prince_ were not spoken, though women whispered about the breadth of his shoulders and all of the teeth still in his head and the men chortled at his stature. It was true, the reigning champion was taller. His beard and hair was salt and pepper. His skin was knotty with scars. He looked like a hardened warrior. He didn't have the pleasure of training with the King's Army, though.

A woman circled the inside of the ring with a pot outstretched. She collected bets and wrote down people's names and amounts. The flickering torches made molten gold of her hair. Her expression was sombre when she'd finished and finally looked at Natsu, just a glance, then she was through.

"'Til knockout, men. Winner takes all. Loser gets her lovely company if ye can pay," the announcer grabbed the girl around the shoulders and pulled her into his side.

"The loser gets to take her home?" Natsu didn't understand.

The woman's eyes flashed. "The loser gets his wounds stitched up if he's not an unsavoury beast." Her voice was a sweet whiplash.

Natsu's opponent said, "I'm doomed to forever be longing for you, Lucy."

"You can't always win, Gildarts." She was a bit sassy. A bee with honey.

Gildarts asked, "Is that why you always bet against me? You think the streak's got to end?"

"Maybe I just don't like you." But she smiled. Natsu willed her to turn it on him.

The announcer squeezed Lucy's shoulders. "Enough botherin', girly, you'll distract them."

"Yeah. Let's just fight," Natsu said. His entire body was buzzing with energy. He wanted this. _Needed_ this.

Gildarts shook his head slowly. "You rush, you lose, kid. Always."

"You haven't fought anyone like me."

The announcer backed up and took Lucy with him. The crowd cheered for his blood. Natsu got low to the ground and studied the way Gildarts moved. He was a lefty but that hand was badly torn up. Chances were, he'd lead with his right. Natsu had a rule about that, though. He always struck first.

As soon as the announcer blew his whistle, Natsu moved. All of his frustration, all of his prickliness, all of his anger, it all bubbled up to the surface and he used that to propel himself forward.

He planted his left foot and swung with his right hand. His face flamed and then he saw black.

And toffee. And ivory. And gold. Gold. Gold. Molten gold and marigold and creamed gold and sunset gold. Gold had a name and it was Lucy. Gold opened a Celestial Gate for a powerful spirit and she was not gentle, though Natsu was sure Happy had paid her to be. Gold fixed his broken nose and left him laying in crackly grass. Gold left him and made him feel poor.


	2. Chapter 2

Flame twisted above Natsu's fingers and made the image of a girl. She had hair as long and as fine as wheatgrass. It was gold and swirled around her hips when he bid her to twirl in a circle. She could have been collecting bets or she could have been dancing. Natsu thought he'd like to see her dance.

Zeref cleared his throat noisily. Natsu looked up and saw his brother was pursing his lips. He used to do that when their mother would put a sour salve on his thumbnail to encourage him to stop chewing it. He'd only refined the expression throughout the years. Natsu snuffed the fire but didn't shake Zeref's gaze. It was probing, wondering not only _who_ he was making fire art for but _why_ he couldn't wait until their duty to the citizens of Alvarez was over.

He snuffed out fire-born Lucy and started plotting. Wasn't there anything he could tell one of the guards outside the antechamber? _Anything at all_ to get out of there, from beneath Zeref's glare and onto the street where he could hunt for her again?

He'd sent Happy out twice today already to look for her, combing the poverty district and the middle class. He found nothing. The next step would be the noble houses but if she was a nobleman's daughter, Natsu thought he would _know_.

"Natsu."

"What?"

Zeref's eyebrows came down. "Listen."

Right. He looked away from the large double doors and better focused. There was a woman in front of him on her knees. She was in threadbare clothing and had a basket of eggs on the marble floor in front of her. "Repeat that?" Zeref's eyes flashed with anger that Natsu ignored.

Her already pink cheeks turned the colour of fall apples. "If it pleases Your Highness, please accept these eggs from my farm." They were large brown globes, dull and nestled together.

"Because…?"

"She wants funds, Natsu. The river flooded last week and drowned most of their hens. This is what's left," Zeref repeated so the woman didn't have to.

Shame licked Natsu's cheeks. "Oh. Visit the Finance Minister. He'll give you what you need."

The woman washed him with praise before leaving. Attempting to avoid Zeref's glare, he leaned forward in his smaller throne and took one of the eggs out of the basket. It was flecked with gold and cold from the long hours it'd spent away from the hen.

"Where is your head today?" Zeref didn't usually get angry but he was close just then.

"I'm tired," Natsu said. Three hours of sleep before his manservant woke him with a basin of boiled water for washing was _not_ enough.

"What were you out doing?" Zeref asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," Natsu said too quickly. Zeref looked at him more thoroughly. Natsu was very aware of the gentle bruising below his eyes, the last remnant of his opponent's wicked punch, the stuff that Lucy and her spirit just couldn't heal.

Zeref faced forward again and barked, "Next business!"

There was a commotion out in the hallway, yelling and a clatter of armour. Natsu stood. It wasn't very often they had any entertainment at all. A man was pushed into the antechamber. A beggar with shoes far too nice. Natsu knew those leather boots immediately. They'd been his, after all.

"What's this?" Zeref asked his guards drably.

"We found this one with shoes too good to be his," said one of the guards. "He's a thief."

The beggar opened his gap-toothed mouth and pleaded. "Please, Your Maj'sty. T'wasn't like that. A boy just gave 'em to me. Said, 'Sir, you're a fine Sir, Sir. Take'em boots, Sir. You'll do alright.' And so's I did. I ain't no saint but I never stole from nobody."

Zeref was the picture of boredom, his chin resting on his knuckles, his eyes hooded. He swirled a glass of deep red wine. The stuff made Natsu's skin flush and his head pound. "Men don't just give boots away, do they, brother? The punishment for stealing from a noble-born is…?"

"No lights," Natsu said. "But—"

"Put him in Cthulhu's Palace."

A pit without windows. No doors. Just a hole in the ground with a latch on top. Men were thrown in with no food or water and left to rot. Their bodies were never retrieved. The bones were decades thick, child molesters, rapists and kingslayers.

"That's not necessary," Natsu objected.

"He probably killed the owner of those boots," Zeref informed him. "Once the body's found, we'll need to tell his family and they'll want justice." He was already planning ahead. The beggar wept on his knees, repeating himself. He was no killer; he was no thief.

"I gave him the boots," Natsu said.

"Don't cover for him, brother. If we release him, he'll just go out and do it again." Zeref waved to his guards.

Natsu stepped off the dais. "No. They're mine. I gave them to him. He has them rightfully. Take them off," he ordered.

The guards held the man tight until Zeref waved them on. The beggar did as he was told. His feet were over-large and wide and sockless. There were calluses and scars all over the soles. He'd already started to wear the inside of Natsu's boots. He walked too often, searching for food and shelter.

Natsu put one of the boots in Zeref's face, showing him the evidence. ND was carved into the leather and the bottoms were crafted with special fire-retardant wooden sole. "Mine. I gave them to him. And as you can see, I'm alive and doing fine."

Zeref drummed his fingers on his throne.

"Sire?" asked one of the guards.

"Send him back from where you got him," Zeref said.

"And the boots?"

"No one wants to wear them now, do they?" he snapped. "Throw them out."

"Thos're mine!" the beggar squealed when the guards held him down and started stripping him of his acquired goods.

"I can give a man boots if I want," Natsu protested. "Leave them."

The guards paid him no mind, not when they had a direct order from the king. Natsu swivelled on his brother. "What are you doing?"

"A kindness."

"You're taking the only thing he has of any value!"

"Leave us," Zeref barked and everyone filtered out of the chamber. The door closed. Zeref sat forward. He needn't stand to be intimidating. "Do you know how I found him? The King's Watch was patrolling the city and came across a gang of gutter rats just like him, all armed with broken stakes and glass and bricks. They had their eyes set on those boots, Natsu, and they weren't going to leave until he was dead."

He didn't think about the trouble he'd bring when he traded shoes. Zeref saw it in his face. "Why did you see fit to risk his life?"

"I was just being kindly." Natsu was ashamed of his blunder but he wasn't foolish. He wasn't going to give up the chance to go back to the ring.

Whatever goodwill had been in Zeref's expression withered. "You're scheming something."

Natsu put on his carefree smile. "You're paranoid. I really was just feeling kindly."

Zeref shook his head and leaned back into his seat. "I will hear about it. I hear about everything."

Not this he wasn't.

A tapping on the door redirected Zeref's attention. "Enter."

Happy came in and bowed low to Zeref. "Your Majesty." He turned to Natsu and bent at the waist again, shallower. "Your Highness."

"What is it, Happy?" Zeref asked impatiently.

"It's time for His Highness's community service," Happy said.

"Is that not done yet?"

He had impatience in his voice that made Natsu wary. "Almost. Another couple of days and that's that."

"I'll tell Serena that you're finished now. I have other things for you to be doing."

"What kind of message does that send?" Natsu asked. "The Crown Prince scorched a confessional, he needs to be punished."

"The Crown Prince is a Crown Prince and should act like one and _not_ make little flame creatures for his amusement," Zeref countered. "We wouldn't be in this situation otherwise."

"I was bored," Natsu said. "Now I need to pay for my actions." He was already halfway out of the room.

"When will you be back?"

"Late, likely. Serena loves his tomes," Natsu called over his shoulder. Out in the hallway outside of Zeref's hearing range, he asked Happy, "Did you find the maid?" Zeref had a favourite.

"Yeah."

"And you stationed her outside his room?"

"He'll run into her."

And she'd keep him busy for the night. "Good job."

"Natsu—"

"Did you get the funds from my chamber?"

"Yes, but only the loser can see her, you heard the announcer last time."

"Then I'll lose."

"You want her to see you lose _two_ fights? Because she snickered when she was fixing your nose."

"Then I'll _win_ ," Natsu corrected. "And then I'll pay for her to patch me up so Zeref doesn't know."

"I don't think just anyone can be healed by her. There're rules—"

"I'm the heir to the throne," Natsu said cockily. "I make most of them."

Happy puffed up his cheeks. "Out there, you're not even Natsu."

He was right. If the only way to see her again was to lose, there were worse things than looking foolish. Fantasizing about a half-remembered girl cast in golden light. Ceaseless distraction. He needed to be back out in that ring, whatever the cost.


	3. Chapter 3

The slums were no joking matter. Many places had no running water or proper walls for privacy. Children followed their parents to work and grandparents whittled on front porches to try to make a few extra dollars when it was time to go to market.

Houses were made either from sand and stone or painted wood. They were stained by the rain and road dust and the splash of chamber pots. They reeked of rot and piss and crawled with cockroaches that roosters pecked at with bills as sharp as razors.

Natsu passed a crone with her face like leather, holding a sobbing baby. He returned despite Happy's protests and gave her a gold dollar emblazoned with the Crown's sigil.

She cried and through her tears, she thanked him. Her back was too bent to bow but she tried as she praised the Crown Prince and his royal brother.

Natsu stopped at a tiny oak tree and burned it to ash. He covered his hair in it and again Happy smeared it on his face.

"Someone will still recognize you, Your Highness."

"Not if his servant stops calling him stupid titles."

"Should I call you Natsu? Because that's the prince's name," Happy retorted with a healthy amount of sass.

"After my mother named me at least twenty families named their second born that."

Happy glowered. "It's still dangerous."

"Good." He wanted a bit of danger.

"Stupid," Happy muttered. "If you're set on this, we can send the guard and bring the healer back to the palace."

"Then how will I have my fight?"

"In the safety of the castle grounds where no one is likely to stab you for the gold buttons on your coat or the coins you're still carting around."

"Let them try." He'd love a _real_ fight.

Happy put his hands in his pockets and muttered about being hung for being careless with the heir to the throne.

Zeref might have been mad but he wouldn't hang Happy if Natsu asked.

They crested a hill and the fight rings spread out below them. People moved like ants moved through a colony. A few held torches; the scent of kerosene and burning rags made Natsu's nose itch. He preferred his fire without chemicals.

"Let me see you," Happy demanded before Natsu could rush down the hill. He fixed Natsu's hair and took a silver pin off his shirt. He took his knife and ripped a short slash in the calf of Natsu's pants so he could blend in more. He tried to do the same to his shirt but Natsu was impatient. He pushed Happy's hands aside and descended the hill.

It was strange approaching people and having their attention for only a millisecond. He was just like everyone else at that moment. No, "Your Highness," or "Crown Prince." He was just another sob trying to make a dollar the quickest way he knew how.

At the base of the hill and in the centre of a boisterous crowd was a very tall and very burly man yelling in his deep baritone. He held a large beer barrel on his shoulder as if it weighed no more than a stone. A lithe girl was taking people's money and filling up cups for them.

She spied Natsu and gave him a smile as sweet as honey. She had a glass ready for him when he got to her. "Your face healed well."

Natsu traded a coin for the glass and sucked it back. "Only a little tender."

She laughed. "If I were you, I'd thank Gildarts for going easy."

"Easy?" Natsu muttered.

"Bluenote doesn't have any teeth left," she whispered.

"Who are the other big contenders?"

"For a beginner?" She had a cheeky lift to her grin.

"I don't need special treatment." His pride had too much of a voice most days but today, it was especially active. "I've trained with some of the best men in Alverez."

"That might have helped you if these weren't the worst," added a new voice.

Natsu spun so fast, he almost lost his balance. Lucy let him struggle with a wry smile on her lips. Natsu tried to swipe his hand through his hair to recover, then remembered the ash hiding the pink last-second. He awkwardly put his hands in his pockets.

"I've known men more skilled than they."

"But you don't rank among them?" she teased.

"That first fight was unfair. Your champion is under-handed."

"I remember him warning you. I understand if you don't."

Natsu's pride flared again. "I'm going to win tonight."

"Not if you go against Gildarts," she said surely.

"I _will_."

She waved him on. "Please, try. Your man paid me very well last time. I'd like to see you again."

"If I win? Can I still see you afterwards to brag about it?"

Some of the flare disappeared from her grin. "Only the loser sees the healer."

"Says who?"

"Those are the rules," Lucy deked.

"Rules are made to be broken."

"Maybe, if you're not the one breaking them."

"Meet me by the apple tree in the eastern corner."

"I can't."

"Just do it."

"I _can't,_ " she said again.

"Just try." He wouldn't take no for an answer. He didn't know how.

Lucy huffed, which wasn't a yes and wasn't a no. so Natsu assumed that meant she'd at least think about it.

* * *

Men sweating pungently crouched in the ring. Natsu pushed his way to the front. Two men circled each other inside. Neither one of them had a memorable face.

They hit each other until the blood ran and teeth flew. Until the shorter one got down low and hit the taller one in the nuts. He went down white-faced. It was over shortly after that.

The loser was dragged away by a thick-chested man and was left lying on a patch of grass. A little boy rushed to his side. The tears stood out on his face.

"Why doesn't he go see the healer?" Natsu asked the man beside him.

"Macao doesn't have that kind of money," was the response.

Natsu knew, of course, that everyone in his kingdom didn't live the same but it was one thing to know and another thing to witness it first-hand. He patted around his pockets until he found another gold coin. He pushed through the crowd and gave it to the sobbing boy. "For the healer."

The little boy didn't say thank you as he shot to his feet and raced as only a child could, the heels of his feet almost touching the small of his back. His old man turned his bloody face and garbled something like _thank you._

The crowd parted and gold came through. Her skirts puffed around her when she knelt. She was in white so pure, her body beneath was silhouetted with the fire behind her. He could see everything and nothing at all. The image burned into his mind.

She met Natsu's eyes as she put away the gold coin the boy had given her and took out her gold key. She knew it was him that had paid for it. He would have done so anyway but it felt good to have her approval.

She opened her gate and looked like a goddess doing it. White light clung to her skin, like that from the stars in the sky. Her spirit emerged, a woman bare and scaled like a snake, a chain around its throat. It draped over the downed man with healing hands. Lucy pushed her hair back behind her ear and Natsu saw her throat was lashed with a similar bond, magical in nature. It strung them together.

"Champion's are up. Who is the next contender?" yelled the announcer.

"I thought you wanted to win?" Lucy said when Natsu hesitated. "You can't do that staring at me."

He could not. "By the apple tree."

"In my healing tent," she amended.

She was right. Gildarts let him get two hits in this time before hitting him so hard in his cheek, he felt it crack. He went down and though he wasn't out yet, Gildarts pushed him down with a heavy boot in his chest and commanded he stay there in a voice unused to being denied. Natsu obeyed him because it hurt too much to not.

It was worth the pain and humiliation and the ferried ride on Happy's back to Lucy's tent. He was laid on a bed of bloody rags. Happy pushed aside the tent flap and stood guard at the entrance, leaving them alone. Natsu used his one good eye to look around.

The tent was bare-bones, on flat, grassless ground. Its innards were sterile and lit with three candles and the light of the stars as Lucy again summoned her spirit.

Soothing hands and celestial magic took away most of the pain. Lucy distracted from the rest with a cool, damp cloth after she dismissed her spirit. She pushed the soot back off his face and stared. Natsu touched his hair; it wasn't as grimy as it'd been before. The pink was showing through.

"This is the wrong place for the Crown Prince."

There was no sense in denying his identity. "I'm exactly where I want to be."

"Handing out gold coins to beggars too poor to be your cobbler and getting punched down by a man whose only talent is destruction?"

"Sitting in your tent, getting healed by the stars."

She flushed. "You're bold, Your Highness."

"Clumsy. Bad with words. Smitten." And brave. Gildarts may have knocked something loose in his head.

Whatever the case, Lucy's smile warmed. "Crown Prince or not, that was very kind, what you did for Macao and Romeo."

"Why does he fight if he can't pay to see you?"

"Because he can't pay to see me," she said sadly.

"You could heal him for free."

"It's not that easy. Bora decides who I see and he decides by who has the most coin."

"Who is Bora?"

"The announcer and the owner of the fight rings."

Natsu pushed up on his elbows. "Fine enough, it's his ring and people come here of their own free will. You don't have to stay, though. If this is what you like to do, I can have you set up in a shop and you can make your own rules."

"Is that what you think, Your Highness? You snap your royal fingers and the world is a better place?" she said disrespectfully. Zeref would be angry; Natsu grinned until his face hurt.

"No, but this is within my power."

She shook her head. "These people need me." Shouting came from the ring. Lucy used the tips of her fingers to fix the soot in Natsu's hair and then stood. "You best be on your way, Your Highness."

"Natsu."

"Crown Prince."

"Don't call me that here. You'll ruin everything."

"If I was sane, I'd go to your brother and pray he doesn't hang me when I tell him the news."

"But he might." Zeref was brash sometimes. Not quite as brash as the stories made him seem, mind, but brash enough that Natsu could lead Lucy to that conclusion without much fuss. "Best just to be quiet about my identity."

"Very well, you're senseless and you pay well for it, your secret is safe with me." She pulled her hair over her shoulder and Natsu thought smitten was a wicked word for the feeling in his chest.

"I'd still like you to meet me. Tomorrow. By the apple tree."

She considered him long and hard. He wished he knew what she was thinking. "After the fights. For an hour, no more. And bring four gold coins."

He would have preferred the entire night but he knew, despite what Zeref said, when to set down his sword and surrender. He took her hand in a gentleman's shake. "It's settled."

The tent flap pushed back and the announcer entered. He was bleeding from the nose. "Lucy," he barked. "Fix this."

Lucy pulled out of Natsu's grip and staggered to her feet. "What happened?"

"Just _fix it_!"

She turned meek. "Yes, Master."

Natsu didn't realize he was staring until he was fixed with Bora's deepest scowl. "Get _out,_ urchin."

He had questions. Happy was there to ensure he didn't get a chance to ask any of them, appearing in the tent and pulling him out bodily. When they were free and clear, Natsu said, "Find out everything you can about him. And her."

"It's unwise to pursue it."

"That's an order." He didn't give them very often. In fact, this may have been his first.

"Yes, Your Highness," Happy lamented.

* * *

 


	4. Chapter 4

When he was a kid—and for about two years as an adult when Natsu realized what Zeref meant when he said, _'Invite your server to bring you food in your chambers'—_ Princing had been fun. Now it was the same old thing. Boring. Meaningless.

He did not invite up the server anymore after discovering she used to keep the old head of the King's Guard's bed warm, too, and he did not like the princesses Zeref paraded around for him at Midwinter. While they were on topic, he did not like the days Zeref opened the castle up to citizens. And this was twice in one week. There'd been more complaints after Zeref introduced new tariffs.

Natsu made fire creatures to entertain himself. Zeref scowled at him and overcompensated, listening to the concerns of their citizens and explaining why the change had been necessary.

After the last citizen left the antechamber, Zeref did what he'd been trying to do for the last hour and a half: scrutinized Natsu's face. Natsu _did not squirm_. Zeref pounced on squirming like a coyote pounced on a mouse. He would be pinned and dismantled in the space of a breath. He did, however, wish furiously that their thrones were opposite. Only one side of his face was messed up and that just happened to be the side Zeref was sitting on. Of course.

"How is your community service, brother?"

"Boring," Natsu said with the right amount of drab; he'd made Happy practice with him on the way home last night until he nailed the insouciance required to fool Zeref.

"Did you express your lack of engagement to Serena?"

"Does Serena look like the kind of man that cares if people are engaged in their punishments?" Natsu asked flippantly.

"Is that the attitude that inspired your black eye?"

It was lightly grey and pink, _not_ black anymore. Natsu rolled his head on the back of his crushed velvet throne and looked at Zeref with his best dead eyes. "It wasn't Serena. Dimaria doesn't like when I'm sarcastic."

Zeref's dark brows knitted in surprise. "Dimaria?"

"Yeah, we started our sword lessons again."

The smile that took over his brother's mouth was far too genuine. "Good."

The Servants' entrance opened up, right on time as Natsu and Happy had discussed, and Zeref's favourite maid came through with a fluffy white duster. Zeref sat up straighter and waved Natsu off. "You're dismissed."

Natsu bowed quickly to his brother and skipped the dais step. "Sorano," he sang on his way by. "I think I saw some spots on the throne that could use your skilled hands."

Sorano looked up from her bow. "Thank you, Your Highness."

Sometimes, Natsu thought the only reason Zeref liked her was her inability to seem sincere. He wondered, fleetingly, if she called him _Your Majesty_ when the door was closed? It seemed she was always on the verge of disobeying a command and scoffing at royalty.

Then he decided that he didn't actually care what Zeref did when the door was closed. He'd really rather not know.

* * *

To keep up appearances, Natsu visited Dimaria. She mocked him for the black eye; he lied to her differently, weaving an embarrassing story that involved too much ale, a dare, and not nearly enough balance.

She laughed and made his other eye look the same. Then she hit him in the head and he thought she and Gildarts might have compared notes.

* * *

Fading sunlight silhouetted Happy's frame. He was at the wrong angle. Natsu squinted his eyes to see better. He had a wrap of meat in one hand, and a bottle of ale in the other.

Happy stopped just inches from him. "Miss Porlyusica's been to see you and gave me these."

"What?"

Happy crouched down and Natsu suddenly understood why the world looked so weird. He was on his back. There was sand beneath him, which meant he never quite made it out of Dimaria's torture ring, and both eyes sort of hurt, in that drab way that an old bruise did.

"She said to hold the cold compress to your face." He held out the meat. Natsu eased it against his eye. Relief was immediate.

"What time is it?"

"Nearly six. We missed dinner."

"That's fine. We'll get something. Zeref?"

"The maid's moved to cleaning his chambers again."

"Excellent." He felt rejuvenated and hopped up. His head was cracking down the middle but not even that would slow him down.

"Wait."

"No, hurry up, Happy. We have a lot of ground to cover." And guards to slip by. Good thing he knew about a crack in the wall he could squeeze through once he'd skipped dinner and let out every ounce of breath on the way.

"I did your research."

_That_ stopped Natsu. "And? Is she a Princess Queen?"

"Not a thing—"

"Is she a dragon tamer?"

"Dragon's are extinct—"

"Is she a goddess stepped from the stars, sent to heal brave knights from battle?" He'd need to find her a battle and himself some armour.

"She's a slave."

Natsu stopped mid-conjure. "What?"

"She was purchased across the Great Sea for a silver dollar and brought here. Bora got her from a trader he's befriended. The same one he gets his fighters from."

"Slavery was outlawed."

"Purchasing a slave in Alvarez was outlawed because all of her citizens are free. It's still legal to have them here, though, if they were in your care before you entered the country."

His grasp on law and politics was thin but he still knew _enough._ "What a ridiculous law. Who signed off on that?"

Happy raised his eyebrows. "Both Your Highness and His Majesty when the council proposed it."

"What?" he said again. "I wouldn't do that."

"Forgive me, Your Highness, but you're not always… present at those meetings."

"I've never missed one." Zeref would skin him.

"I meant," he tapped his head delicately.

Fair enough. Natsu stuck out his bottom lip. "Zeref always pays attention to detail, though. He wouldn't have okayed that. It was _his_ suggestion that all of our citizens were free!"

"But it would have destroyed the trade we have with Fiore if we outlawed any of their citizens coming and going with their…"

"Slaves?" Natsu suggested. There was no delicate word for it.

"Yes."

"This is stupid." He swung around on his heel, intent on disturbing his brother and his fun maid time if need be.

"Will you push to have slaves banned?"

"Of course."

"Smart, then she and Bora can be shipped back to Fiore, where she'll spend the remainder of her life as a healer for him."

Natsu whirled back around on his heel. "'That's not a good idea' would have sufficed."

"I've learned it's better when royalty comes to the conclusion on their own. That way you can manipulate them without their even realizing it."

Natsu scowled. "Until you say it aloud like a fool."

"A fool who is indispensable if not to the King, then at least to the Crown Prince." Happy waved him through the gap in the wall.

* * *

A few people nodded to Natsu as he came off the hill. The large man with the ale gave him a pint and Natsu gave him a gold coin. He gave some to Happy and sipped the rest, looking for Lucy while pretending to not.

He found her sitting by her tent on a stump in another white dress, long-sleeved, cut in the front to expose a wide expanse of sun-kissed skin. A child sat between her feet, dressed in leather armour and fumbling a stone through her fingers.

Lucy gathered child's hair expertly, weaving it into a fishtail braid. She whispered something in the girl's ear after and hugged her around the shoulders.

"Gildarts isn't participating tonight," Happy informed him.

Natsu felt the full force of his disappointment only after he looked away from Lucy. "He's not?"

"I took the liberty of arranging a different match."

"And you didn't even blow my cover?"

"We're in too deep now, I suppose," Happy groused.

Much.

* * *

Having Happy on his side of things was a blessing, really, but when he said he 'set up a match', Natsu realized that he should have been warier.

Happy didn't choose opponents based on how hard they would hit or how wickedly fast they'd be, he went through the crowd and looked for the one that was the most average.

The one that would do the least amount of damage.

"You've got to be kidding me," Natsu muttered when the time came to step into the ring.

And Happy told him, "Dimaria's already left her mark on you today. You want _some_ brain cells left. And, you can impress Lucy with a win _before_ you talk to her, so she doesn't believe that losing and poor social skills are your only qualities, Your Highness."

"I told you not to call me that." Natsu hunted for listening ears but no one was paying them any attention.

" _Natsu_ ," Happy clarified. "Find a square of grass and charm her, and then we can put this behind us."

He didn't want to just 'charm' her. Happy saw it on his face. He must have thought he'd pushed his luck too far already and kept quiet like a good servant.

* * *

Natsu won his fight in exactly seven moves and only suffered for four of them, employing a technique that Dimaria taught him two years ago, back before she was annoyed with his pert attitude and gloating. The routine went like this: let your opponent land heavy hits early on, giving them a false sense of confidence, and then go in for the kill, so to speak.

His lip was dribbling blood and his clothes were stained, his ear was ringing and his jaw hurt. And then, when the crowd was really booing him and Lucy, through a sea of bodies, was chewing on her delicate and plump lip, Natsu went in for the coup de grace.

His opponent's name was Max. And though Natsu swung until his knuckles were sore, he was unconscious blissfully quick. Just in case he didn't have the money to pay for the healer.

He got what he was owed from Bora and sat by the apple tree, secluded from the rest, out of the glow of the torchlight, waiting for the fights to end.

* * *

Sometime around two, the ring underwent a metamorphosis, a pit of blood now a pit of drunk. Ale soaked the sand, and clothes and drenched mouths. Women found men and some women found women and some men found men. It reminded Natsu so much of midwinter feast he could almost relax in the havoc.

Happy was in the crowd, not visible but not far, and there was a goddess swaying towards him. Tonight, her hair was gold threads held back by onyx pins. Her dress was deeply cut down the collar and slit high on her leg. It was finer than even some court ladies. The mystery of Lucy deepened.

She dropped to the ground without pulling up her skirts; grass would stain the fabric. Natsu touched the pins in her hair. "This is fine wear for a slave."

"And you, Your Highness, you're dressed impeccably drab for a prince." He showed her his teeth; she bowed her head. "Did you have your man slog through back alleys, paying thieves and beggars for word of the mysterious girl with golden keys? Is that how you know what I am?"

"It sounds better when you don't think about the setting, then you don't think about the smell."

She shook her head, smiling wryly. "What have I done to garner your attention? Mock you? Is that what princes fancy these days?"

"Absolutely." She wasn't like the other girls at court. Her tongue was sharp and her looks were sly. "What did you think of my fight?"

"What I think of every fight," she clipped. "Unnecessary, brutish."

"But also amazing."

She touched his split lip; Natsu's heart crashed into his ribs. "There's nothing amazing about this."

"The way I feel when you touch me. That's amazing."

"Are you always so cunning with your tongue?"

"Almost never." His ale lubricated all the embarrassing words in his mind and purged them, one by one. "Will you continue?"

She looked at him. Her thoughts were veiled but there was a mischievous pull to her lips. "I could be trying to rob you. You're being foolish."

"You don't need to rob me."

"Say the word and my wish is your command?"

"If you wanted for something that I could give."

"The gold coins you promised?"

"If you want them to buy out your tenure, I'll do it for you now. We can negotiate price, in case Bora feels four isn't enough. I'll have Happy run to the coffers—"

"They're not to buy my tenure," Lucy said.

"But—"

She placed her fingers against his lips, silencing him. "I'm exactly where I need to be, under my Master. I can't leave him."

Natsu's heart fell. "Do you love him?"

"There's only one thing I love, Your Highness, and it's not of this world."

"Your magic." He could understand; she was goddess-like when she used it.

Lucy looked uncomfortable for a moment like he'd peeled back a layer and taken a peek at something she'd kept covered up, hidden. The thing was, once you saw her use her magic, the serene expression she wore, the warmth that radiated from her like she was a sun casting her light on a dying world, you knew. Nothing she ever did to hide would cover up something so pure.

"Let me speak to him."

"No," she said firmly and started to rise.

"Wait." Natsu took her hand and pulled her back. Lucy looked surprised. He rushed to cover up his brazen actions so she didn't think the worst of him. "I'm sorry. If you're happy where you are, then I will respect that."

She still stared him down.

"Your coins." Natsu produced them. Moonlight caught their surface until Lucy plucked them out of his hand and put them between her breasts. They were immediately lost. She settled down on the ground again; their hips touched.

"That was kind of you."

"It's only money."

"It means a lot to some."

"I know."

"Romeo's father didn't show up tonight. I hope he took what was left of the money you gave him and is trying to start new."

"Me, too."

She picked up his hand and glided her fingers over his knobby knuckles. It hurt. He memorized the sting. She touched his cheek, his bruised eye, his lip again. Her fingers tasted like salt. She leaned in; Natsu could not look away from her mouth. She pressed it to the corner of his, slowly, as if moving too quickly would ruin the moment.

She pulled back and Natsu felt obligated to say, "I only brought the coin because you asked for it. I didn't plan on treating you like a corner girl."

"I wasn't going to let you."

"Then that…?"

"You're kind, and it's the only thing I have to give."

He wanted another.

A frog croaked. Lucy told Natsu, "I have to go."

"Why?" Even as he asked, he saw Bora moving towards Lucy's tent. He looked drunk, stumbling into one of his friends and laughing. Natsu didn't like the expression on his face. It was one of privilege. "You don't have to go to him."

"All due respect, but you don't know anything, Your Highness." Lucy stood and her perfume wafted over him. Lavender. Natsu stood, too.

"Will you meet me again tomorrow?"

"You're relentless."

"I've been told I'm dogged."

She smiled like he hoped. "I'm going to market tomorrow morning. I could see you by the fruit stalls."

Natsu's grin pulled unpleasantly on his broken lip. "I'll be there."

"With four more gold coins?"

"Yes." He would bring her the treasury if she asked.

Lucy slipped out of his hand and ran, a golden white wraith. She slid into the tent expertly, like she'd done this kind of thing before.

"I hate to say you're being played." Happy crept out of the darkness, soberer than what he'd let the crowd believe.

"It's not so bad, being a chess piece."

"Until she kicks you off the board."

Natsu chose not to listen to him.


	5. Chapter 5

Natsu very rarely woke before ten AM. Especially when, the night before, he crept through the palace wall and up the lattice to his room just as the sun was peeling back the horizon. But at six-thirty, when the servants usually got up to go to the market, he opened his eyes and dragged his tired body to his washbasin.

He got rid of the crusty blood on his neck and the soot off his face and from his hair. He'd need a disguise again but he could do that outside of the palace walls.

He got into his plainest tunic, white and blue, and his most functional pair of breeches. He put on the vagabond's shoes again and Happy showed him the servant's corridor, a long hallway with many branches that ran throughout the entire castle. It was confusing like a labyrinth and Natsu was lost almost immediately. Happy seemed to know his way, though.

Mostly, anyone they passed kept their eyes to the ground and anyone who looked up promptly looked back down again and bowed. The chef was the only one that dared make conversation and that was only to tell him that he was too high-bred to be in such a lowly place.

After that, Natsu put on his best royal face and surpassed them all without engaging. No need to draw any more unwanted attention. He was the Crown Prince, after all, he didn't need to explain his presence. This was his castle, and everyone in it his subjects and—

"Brother." Natsu swivelled on his heel and came face-to-face with Zeref.

"What are you doing up so early?" Natsu blurted but what he really meant was, _what are you doing here_ , _in the servant's wing?_ It wasn't any place for a king.

Zeref raised his eyebrow. "The day starts at dawn." If you weren't a lazy prince, his tone said. "I'm surprised to see you wandering about, though."

"Um—"

"Sword practice," Happy swooped in.

"Then why are you in the servants' halls? That's a rather unconventional place for Dimaria to choose." Zeref was like a dog with a bone, he'd chew and chew until someone cracked.

Happy again saved the day. "I suggested we visit the kitchens for a real breakfast before Miss Dimaria ruined his face some more."

Zeref was not as fond of Happy's smartness as Natsu was and frowned. "Should I tell her to go easy?"

"I deserved it," Natsu told him and tongued his still swollen lip.

"He antagonized her the entire lesson," Happy chimed.

"You do have a way about you," Zeref said eventually. "You should curb it before it finds you trouble."

He _wished_ it would find him _more_ trouble, actually.

"Thanks. I do have to get going but maybe we'll have lunch," Natsu suggested meaninglessly. He just wanted out of there now.

Zeref waved him off and Natsu practically ran.

* * *

A little bit of hair colour wouldn't fix everything in the light of day, so Natsu had to improvise. He dressed in a riding cap and pulled it low on his brow, and on Happy's suggestion, walked with a knobby stick, using it as a cane. It was unbelievable how many people overlooked him. Marvellous, really.

The market was already busy. Good. Natsu hobbled to the fruit carts and pretended to shop while he watched the crowd. Happy picked up apples and examined them carefully.

"You don't have to be here, Happy."

"Actually, as your servant, I literally need to be where you are every moment of your waking day, and sometimes when you're asleep, and—"

"I get it. Just… give me some space."

"How am I to tell you how to charm her, then?"

"By _not_."

"Sorry, Your Highness, I thought the plan was to bed—"

" _Charm_."

"—Her. You know, you need more than your smile. Ladies like charisma and guile and a man that can hunt and fish and—"

"Man servants who tell their charges that they'll wait by the vegetable stalls for a few minutes when he impresses a lady," Natsu interjected.

"Surely, you'll give me longer than a few minutes?" Lucy's voice was right in his ear, sweet and soft.

Happy sniggered. He knew she was there all along. Natsu turned on her, armed with a smile. "Lady Lucy."

She wore a scarlet dress today; it was bold and daring. She wanted to be seen. "I wasn't aware that we were being so formal. I would have begun with a curtsy and a 'Your Highness.'" She did just that. A few people looked at them. Natsu leaned more heavily on his cane and pulled his cap across his brow.

"Cut that out."

She straightened. "Likewise."

Happy plucked a carton of blueberries from the stand and gave the vendor his coin. He pressed it on Natsu and sauntered towards the vegetable carts as Natsu asked. Not too close, not too far.

"He won't be joining us?"

"I should hope not," Natsu said.

One of Lucy's pale eyebrows went up. "Will we be doing something your servant shouldn't be watching, Your Highness?"

Natsu felt the tips of his ears get hot. He took her by the elbow and pulled her away from the fruit stand. "Are you trying to get me caught?"

A chicken ran across the road and barely escaped being flattened by a wagon wheel. Its mad dash made it complacent; Natsu had to step around it on the boardwalk.

"Are you not allowed out of the palace?" She would _not_ keep her voice down.

"Not without an armed escort," Natsu hissed. "You're going to ruin everything."

"Maybe it should be. What you're doing sounds dangerous."

"Liberating."

"Does the Crown Prince wish for excitement?" She had the audacity to wink at one of the Kings Guard that monitored the market. He smiled back at her. His attention came to Natsu, naturally. Natsu wouldn't meet his eyes.

"This way, then." Lucy slung her arm through Natsu's then and pulled him left, towards an alley. Natsu looked back, Happy was still by the vegetable stand, talking to a woman about her tomatoes.

They slipped in and shadows made everything cooler. It smelled faintly like garbage and perpetually wet concrete. It was a far cry from the bustling marketplace. Thieves and vagabonds could hide in the archways, waiting to spring and rob them blind.

"Do you travel here by yourself often?"

"Are you frightened for me?" She was teasing him, absolutely, that gleam in her eye. "Am I a delicate lady in need of protection?"

"I wouldn't _assume_ you'd need protection." He'd felt her magic. "Offering it would be the gentlemanly thing to do, though."

" _Gentlemanly_? Is the Crown Prince not like his royal brother? Afflicted by flights of fancy?"

"My brother _is_ a gentleman," Natsu said defensively. "He's just…"

"Cruel and overbearing?"

"Passionate."

"But you are not?"

He fumbled again. "I _am_." He didn't want her thinking he was a wet rag, after all.

Lucy showed her teeth and he realized she was again teasing him. "People say the most wicked things about your brother. I asked them about you, though, Your Highness, and do you know what they said?"

"I'm not sure I care what other people think of me."

"That's exactly it, how did you know?" She stopped by the end of the alley and put her back against the wall. The ocean was right there, its waters filling the canal they stood beside.

"I've tried to live my life doing things my own way," Natsu responded, pleased.

"They also affirmed that you were generous without asking for things in return," Lucy said. "Apparently, you don't give coins to boys just to impress watching ladies."

Which reminded him… he gave her the promised coins. Lucy put them between her breasts as she had yesterday.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. What else have you heard of me?"

"That you're a bit thick, sometimes, but you make up for it in kindness."

" _Who_ said that?"

She smiled again. "I would never give up my informant. Especially when I'm not positive they're correct."

"If you didn't think I was kind, why would you agree to meet me?" He thought he had her cornered.

"Because the Crown Prince asked, and a lowly slave girl obliged." She took his hand and pulled him closer. It felt like they were the only two people in the world, surrounded by pale brick and gently lapping water, though across the canal was a man getting into his boat and if Natsu looked around the edge of the wall, he'd see people moving along the canal, hunting for stores.

"I hadn't meant to intimidate you."

"You don't," she said and he believed that more easily.

"You are a peculiar girl, Lady Lucy."

"Just Lucy."

"Lucy." Simple and elegant and he _liked_ it. "You don't speak like a lowly slave girl, you have wit and you have charm. You have powerful magic. I'd really like to know why you're collecting bets and healing bloody men in Bora's fight ring."

"Why is the Crown Prince _fighting_ in this fight ring?" She was touching his face again and without the shadow of night, it felt much more intimate. Her eyes were bottomlessly dark, comforting and soft.

"Your eyes are like a warm midsummer's night."

"Oh? My source never said you were much of a poet."

He'd written a sonnet or two, by candlelight, about large-bosomed women with mean glints in their eyes. It wasn't the kind of poetry he'd share with anyone, though. "I'm not, really."

"I disagree. You make me feel quite good about myself. Do tell me more."

His cheeks were really, really hot, he could feel them radiating, though the alley was still cool. "You mock me."

"No," she said earnestly. "Please, Your Highness."

He was foolish for believing her. And foolish for trying, but it was just them there and he liked the way she glowed with his compliment. "Your—"

"Yes?"

"Your hair is Midas-touched, it's so gold."

"I see they give you books in the castle."

His mother had read to him. He wasn't going to tell her that, though. "I'm worldly."

Lucy's fingers moved from his cheek to his shoulder. "Finish your tercet, Crown Prince."

"Are you sure it's not to tease me?"

"No," Lucy said.

And despite that, he tried. "Your lips look softer than spring's marigold?"

She bit the corner of her lip. She didn't like the ending as much as she liked the beginning, he could see. Natsu scrambled to do better. Lucy pulled him close and pressed her mouth to his. It was a better kiss than last night. Full on his mouth. Her hands on the back of his neck, holding him in place. Until she let him go.

"Every part of you glows with the stars' light?" Natsu tried again.

"It still needs work," she said and kissed him again, slower now. He felt her tongue and his head was spinning. He took her by the waist and the fabric of her dress crinkled under his hands and he didn't care if it was getting wrinkled and he didn't care if it was getting stained and the best part was, Lucy didn't, either.

Something splashed in the canal.

"Damnit," Lucy swore.

Natsu released her and stepped back. "What was that?"

"My keys." Lucy hung over the side of the canal and peered down into the water. "I dropped them."

"I know a key master. I can have more made if you show me the locks—"

"My _Celestial_ keys," Lucy clarified and got on her hands and knees like she was going to reach in and get them. The ground was so filthy, ruining her dress.

"I'll get them."

"But your disguise, Your Highness—" Lucy began.

"I don't care." And he didn't. So what if the ash washed out of his hair? It was worth it.

He stripped to his braies and hopped in. The water was cold and dark and full of garbage. Some of it floated and some of it sunk to the bottom of the canal, fishing line and wagon wheels and bits of fabric from shirts and pants and an entire wagon, even, Natsu felt its edge.

He couldn't see. He used his hands, though, and felt along the bottom of the canal. Muck, muck, a chalice, and an entire dresser, actually, and there. There was the ring of keys. He snatched it up and raced for the surface; his lungs were burning.

He crested the surface and shook water from his eyes. "I found them!"

"Goody," said a dry voice. "Now you need a scalding hot bath and a trip to Miss Porlyusica to cure all the parasites you just got."

Happy was scowling down at him. Lucy stood behind him, smiling wanly. "Thank you, Your Highness."

It was worth it.

Natsu handed her the keys and Happy helped him out.

A sound like thunder shook the ground and made the canal's water lap at the concrete. A coil of smoke and a burst of water could be seen over the tops of buildings. A second passed, and then guards shouted and feet started moving that way. Word travelled like wildfire. An explosion had destroyed the docks.

Lucy grabbed a uniformed guard and stopped him short. "The north docks?"

"Yes," he answered impatiently and shook her off.

"Hey," Natsu said.

The guard looked like he was going to get irate, then he saw Natsu's hair and Happy beside him and he rethought. "The slave docks were attacked, Your Highness."

"Casualties?" Natsu demanded.

"We don't know, Your Highness."

"Wendy was there," Lucy sobbed and broke away. She ran quickly for a woman in a dress. By the time Natsu yanked on his pants and gave chase, she was long, long gone.


	6. Chapter 6

 

It was storming. Big, fat raindrops fell from the sky and soaked Natsu through to his skin. Happy fretted beside him, worried about catching colds and going _into_ where a riot was slowly downgrading but Natsu didn't hear any of his words. He stared at the mess that was the north docks, where boats coming in from Fiore lay in ruin, large freighters and smaller, craftier vessels that could tack through the sea with the ease a hummingbird flying through clear skies. Bits of the hull lay floating on the water and men clung to them, desperate to be saved.

Voices were still strained. People spoke of sea witches and bombs and ruination. A ship carrying gold bars and slaves was supposedly at the bottom of the harbour. And its sister ship was blown into pieces so small, no one could say for sure _where_ it went down.

The grounds were soaked, and the harbour was full of looters trying to cash in on the sunken bars of gold. People were literally drowning. Some guards tried to save them. Some just stood on the shore and watched. Natsu yanked a boy out of the water by the scruff of the neck. He retched water on the dock, too stunned to count his blessings.

"What happened?" Natsu demanded of one of the passing guards once he was sure the boy was okay.

The man bowed his head and spoke to the ground. "Terrorists, Your Highness, sabotaging trade between the Eastern lands and your Royal brother. We have one of them in custody now."

" _Where_?" He was so furious, he was seeing red.

"They're on their way to the jails to await trial."

Natsu left Happy trailing behind him.

* * *

Natsu barged through the castle gates with a haughty authority he'd learned from Zeref and had perfected throughout his teenage years. Dimaria was speaking to one of the guards there but paused to study him. She smiled her butcher's smile. "The Princeling has returned. And he is in _trouble_."

Natsu's strut felt hamstringed. "What?"

"The King's in the dungeons," she said dreamily. "And he's wanting to see you right away."

"Well… good. The dungeons were just where I was going," Natsu said, trying to get on the right foot again.

"He wants you alone," Dimaria said and slung her arm around Happy's shoulders. "You can just stay here and keep me company."

Happy looked terrified.

"Don't bug him, Dimaria," Natsu told her.

"Wouldn't dream of it." She squished him against her breastplate and Happy let out a weak wheeze of air.

"Don't let her bully you," Natsu said to Happy and took off again. He hated the dungeons. _Hated_ them. They were dank. They were dingy. They were drafty. And they drove people daffy. The faster he could get in and out of there, the better.

The entryway was at the northernmost part of the castle. It was a hole in the ground that filled with snow in the winter and flooded in the spring. It was guided by two massive statues of angels holding blades that looked sharp enough to split a man's hand open. Their faces were blank, their eyes as dead as a bloated racoon's after a drowning. There was moss that grew in their stone clothing and covered their chest and their necks.

Natsu passed them and felt like he was being judged.

Halfway down the stairwell and the air got cold. The light was pinched out. Then there was only a torch. Natsu left it where it was and used his own fire to light his way into the stone tunnel.

Cockroaches scattered and spiders shrunk into their webs. Two guards, real, breathing ones with swords and leather armour, stood sentry by the steel gate that barred the real jail entrance.

"Your Highness." They didn't bow, their hands were full of their swords, but they inclined their heads.

A man appeared out of the shadows, a perpetual grin on his face. Nothing much ever bothered Marin. "This way to His Majesty, Prince." He, too, did not bow. It would have bothered Happy if he was there but Natsu didn't care as much.

They passed a cell occupied by a blathering man who had taken off his rough-spun robe and now stood naked as the day he was born. He spoke loudly to the wall about demons in the dark. They passed by another cell that held a man staring blankly into space. And yet another still where the man reached out of the cell in hopes of grabbing Natsu's arm. Natsu sidestepped that man, he was in magic sealing cuffs, who knew what he could do.

Finally, he heard his brother's voice. And a voice that very much didn't belong in here.

The hallway bent and on the other side of the curve was Zeref, surrounded by an armed escort. He faced a dank cell and spoke in what Natsu had dubbed his blank voice. The one he used when he was about to pass a harsh judgement.

"Please. Please, Your Majesty. It's not what you think. I wasn't trying to do any harm. I was just trying to help the wounded…" Lucy trailed off when she saw Natsu. "Crown Prince!"

Zeref didn't turn around. "This harlot says she knows you, brother."

There were black spots in front of Natsu's eyes. "Why is she in there?" In magic-binding cuffs, too. Her red dress was dirty and there was a welt on her cheek. "Who harmed you?"

Zeref said, "She was shoved to the ground amidst the riot, apparently."

Natsu jarred Zeref's guards aside so he could stand before Lucy. She used to smell sweet but now stunk of sweat and blood and fear. "Open this cell right now."

Zeref lifted his hand to stay the guards though they hadn't moved an inch. "She's a prisoner."

"I see that but you haven't told me _why._ "

"A boy claims he saw a celestial spirit sink the boat, and then I saw her summoning spirits," one of the guards said.

"That doesn't make her guilty," Natsu snapped. "She uses her spirits to heal. I would know, I've had the privilege."

Lucy's turned grateful eyes on him. "Tell them, Crown Prince. Tell them how we were together when the explosion happened."

"South of the north docks, by the market district," Natsu affirmed.

"And plenty of vendors saw us. Even a man of the King's Guard."

"Are you suggesting that my brother would lie to me?" Zeref said, still in his dangerous voice, and Lucy shrunk back.

"I only meant that _I_ wasn't lying. Or—or tricking him. Plenty of people saw us. His servant, as well."

"Release her immediately, and send for Miss Porlyusica," Natsu said.

Zeref's hard-as-steel expression never faltered so Natsu was surprised when he said to one of the guards, "Fetch the crone and release the girl."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The one on the left broke away.

Zeref straightened his shoulders. "Come, brother."

"But Lucy—"

Zeref walked briskly back the way they came without looking over his shoulder to make sure Natsu followed. "I'll find you," Natsu told Lucy and gave chase.

Zeref's mood sloughed off him, grim and brutal. The raving man rushed his cell when he saw Zeref and Zeref lifted his hand. Tendrils clapped across his mouth and twisted his head so far to the left, his neck broke. The light went out of his eyes and he collapsed to the filthy floor, dead.

"Zeref," Natsu said.

Zeref kept marching on and on, up the stairs, into the sunlight, and back towards the castle. People bowed when they saw them. Zeref's face was a mask.

He went straight for his bedchamber. Natsu hesitated at the doors. "Inside," Zeref said.

Natsu closed the door with authority after that; he wouldn't be intimidated.

Zeref reeled on him. "You lied to me."

"Lucy really is a healer," Natsu protested. "We were together—"

"About _training_ ," Zeref cut in. "And then I find out it's so you can run around with a man's slave girl. If you wanted to keep her, there are ways, brother, discrete ways. You bring her back to the palace, you clean her up, you put her in a maid's outfit. You don't ravage her in the streets so people can whisper that the Crown Prince is aiding terrorists!"

"No one's saying that."

" _Everyone_ is saying that!" Zeref raged. "Or they will be!"

"So what?"

" _Unrest_." He said it like it should mean something to Natsu. Eventually, the truth dawned on him.

"You're afraid people will think there's discord between us."

Zeref clapped. "Bravo."

"But there's not."

"Is there not?"

"Do you really think I'd sabotage us like this?" Natsu asked when he finally understood what Zeref was asking.

"Marin claims he heard you say some incriminating things about slaves in Alvarez."

"Marin, what would he know?"

Zeref raised his eyebrow.

"You had him follow me?" Natsu hissed.

"You've been lying to me. And you've been avoiding your guard. To go to a fight ring, no less, like a commoner."

"I like it."

"And what do you suppose would happen if one of those people realized they had the Crown Prince there, huh? They'd take you for ransom, or some malcontent would stick you with his knife, alleviate me of my heir."

"I'm careful."

"Are you? Because you've been pecking at Bora's favourite slave and running around with her in the market." Zeref stopped yelling, his voice got soft and it got dangerous. It gave Natsu goosebumps.

"She's more than what she seems."

"She certainly is. Maybe she's an assassin, sent to get close to my brother. Maybe she's a terrorist, trying to cause discord in my country, maybe she's—"

"Exactly what she seems, a golden-haired beauty from an exotic land where men would put their favourite birds in cages."

"Lord," Zeref swore. "Have we gotten to the poetry part of your infatuation? That was certainly fast. Have you told her yet how her skin looks like diamonds and her bottom like a peach?"

Direct quotes from the first poem he'd ever written about a lady in waiting. Natsu's ears were hotter than the sun. "Shut up."

"You're smitten." He'd told Lucy the same thing. It seemed worse when Zeref told him, though. " _With a slave_. You're risking everything for her. And the worse part of it all is that you can't even see that."

He could, of course, the danger was what made the game fun.

Then Zeref ruined it all. He always did. "I'm sending Dimaria to pay out her tenure and to bring her back here. She should be in our employ if she's as good of a healer as you claim. Porlyusica's been grumbling about retirement. She'll be thrilled."

How did he tell Zeref Lucy didn't _want_ her tenure paid out? He wouldn't understand. He'd have Lucy locked back up in the dungeons and he'd throw away the key.

"Smile, brother, and say thank you."

"Thank you," Natsu managed around the imaginary shackles Zeref was always throwing at him. "I'm sure Lucy will be grateful."


	7. Chapter 7

The sun rose and set and rose and set again without Natsu catching a glimpse of Lucy. She was there. he knew she was. He'd heard servants whispering about the new healer, how beautiful, how generous, how much softer she was than Miss Porlyusica. He'd seen people running back and forth from the tailors, rushing to make her a Healer's gown, rushing to make her dresses she might be able to wear to feasts, where she could sit at the King's elbow and check his foods for poisoning, or be ready if someone were to try to assassinate a member of the royal family.

But Lucy? She did an excellent job of staying out of the hallways. At first, he thought she was just busy with Porlyusica, but then he decided to wait outside Porlyusica's chambers, where Lucy had been spending much of her time and when the doors opened around dinner time and Lucy exited with her head held high, he knew she'd been avoiding him. She didn't look his way. Not even once. Not even when he called her name.

"Why would she ignore me?" Natsu asked. Happy was the only one there to answer. He merely sighed, though, and brought Natsu by the kitchens. Natsu ate a pastry but it tasted flat. He recognized what was happening. He was bored. As bored as he'd been before he discovered the fight rings and a means to participate in them.

Natsu wandered the castle grounds. Happy, too, recognized the restlessness in him. "We could spar," he suggested.

"You hate sparring."

"But you like it."

"You're bad at it."

"Yes. Yes, I am. I could fetch Lady Dimaria, though, or Lady Brandish and they could knock some of your teeth loose for you."

"Neither one of them likes to fight fair, and Lady Dimaria insists on bringing sharp objects to the ring." Decidedly not fun. He wanted to fight, not struggle not to have his guts spilled on the ground.

"I see your point," Happy admitted.

Natsu swung around to the north wall, thinking to sneak out again, though there was no damsel to go see and discovered that the space had been enchanted. He could see the space; he just couldn't pass through it.

Like Zeref was tormenting him.

"If you just got your guards," Happy tried. "You could walk out the front gates."

"Then Zeref wins."

"Wins what, exactly?"

Now that, he didn't know. Natsu left the wall for the river's edge. It ran through the city centre but started here, on the castle grounds.

He liked the water. He liked to make it sizzle and steam with his magic. And he liked to put himself in its cold grasp. It could cool him down like cold air and snow never could.

He flopped back onto a soggy pile of watercress and looked up at the gemstone sky. Blue and red and green like tourmaline. The sun would set soon.

"You're getting your clothes wet."

"I can't leave the castle without armed escorts, I can't fight with commoners, I can't kiss a girl in the market without being accused of conspiracy and I certainly can't lay in water without incurring the wrath of my manservant. What _can_ I do?" Natsu griped.

"Complain as only a prince might," Happy said.

"Enough."

"I suppose you're right. It's no fun sassing you when you're too grumpy to appreciate it."

"You should _never_ sass me, I'm your prince."

"You like it when I sass you. You've told me before. You were drunk, true, but you were genuine. _Happy, you're my best friend. Never stop talking to me like a common lout. Being Royal is_ boring _._ "

Natsu glared liberally. Happy just stood over top of him, arms over his chest.

"Why are you so bitter?"

"I'm not."

"You _are._ You're as foul as you were when Zeref released the wild turkey you intended on keeping as a pet."

Solstice was a fiendish bird, prone to fits and tantrums, sure, but Natsu had captured her fair and square during a hunt that he'd flubbed horribly and nursed her back to health. It was exciting, dodging her razor bill and her knife-like talons.

"He shouldn't have let her go."

"She was supposed to be a dinner bird. Rereleasing her into the wild was a kindness."

"Yeah, but—"

"Forget about Solstice. This is about Lucy, and her ignoring you—"

"It's about my _bird_ —"

Happy waved behind him. "Which is why I summoned her."

Natsu sat up and looked back towards the castle. Sure enough, Lucy was picking her way down the path.

"How did she know to come here?"

"Forgive me, but I knew Zeref would block off the wall and this is the only place you come to sulk, Your Highness," Happy said with a wan smile.

Natsu couldn't bring himself to scold him. "Be gone."

"Gladly." Happy stepped away and Natsu flopped back on his watercress bed, playing the part of the pouty, privileged prince.

Lucy stood before him in the gold-trimmed white dress of a healer. Her hair was braided and her mouth was bare of any colour. She was radiantly beautiful.

"Prince." She bowed shallowly, expression flat and lifeless.

"Lady Lucy." Surely he could call her that now.

"Your servant said you needed to see me."

Natsu grinned. "Yes. I did. I do." Then he didn't know what to say. "You're taking well to your new role."

Her mouth got a little flatter. "Are you well?"

"Perfect." As good as he'd been in days.

She gathered up the bottom of her dress. "I was under the impression that you were ill. If you only wanted to congratulate me on my new position, I have other, more important duties."

She was leaving. And he didn't know how to make her stay. "Would you deny your prince an audience?" He didn't know what had gotten into him. He very rarely used his station to his advantage.

Lucy whirled around. "What do you want?"

"For you to join me."

He hadn't meant _exactly_ on the ground but Lucy ruined her dress in one decisive move, dropping to the wet ground beside him. Natsu took her in. Gold hair, damp, sulking mouth. Maybe her skin _did_ look like diamonds and her bottom like a peach. What was wrong with that? "You're beautiful."

Her mouth turned down in a frown. Natsu got up on his elbow and kissed her. It felt like drinking water after days of dehydration. She didn't touch his cheek the way he touched hers, bringing them closer together, but she didn't push away from him, either. Her mouth opened and he could touch her tongue. She'd been drinking honey lime tea and it was all he could taste.

He pulled back and looked at her again. Her eyes were hooded and her lips were pinker than before. She still looked irritated, though. "You're angry with me."

Lucy pulled his hand away from her cheek and dropped it and it seemed without his touching her, she could be furious. "Perhaps because you've done the one thing I've asked you not to do and bought out my indenture!"

She reminded him of a wasp, beautiful and prickly and fascinating. "Zeref did, to be fair. He thought he was doing you a service and I couldn't tell him you didn't want your bond severed. He would put you back in the dungeons without a second's thought because _most are grateful_ they're no longer a slave."

Lucy's cheeks were pink. "I'm _not_ a terrorist."

"Of course not. You have to admit, though, it's suspicious. Why is being in Bora's control so important to you?"

She looked at him sidelong. "Are you ordering me to speak?"

She would tell him the truth if he pushed, he could see it. But it would also destroy the trust he was trying to build if he got his information heavy-handedly. "Imploring, because I want to help."

She considered him, looking between his mouth and his eyes. Her hard edge was softening like ice in the sun, he could see it. "If you truly wanted to help, you'd give me four gold coins and a means to leave the castle grounds after the sun's set. On my own."

"You can't go on your own. You need a guard and—"

Just like that, she closed off again. "I thought it wouldn't work. Congratulations, Your Royal Highness, you've ruined everything." She stood then and Natsu watched her leave, perplexed. She walked quickly, picking up her dress and disappearing around the corner of the path.

Happy reappeared. "That went worse than I was expecting. Spectacular, my Prince. Do you want to practice your romancing skills? It wouldn't be my pleasure, but to avoid another scene like that, I'd be willing to take the fall."

Natsu wasn't really listening to his jibes and jests.

"Why are you wearing your scheming face?" Happy asked suddenly. "It never goes well for us when you do." He continued in the silence, "We agreed we wouldn't plan anymore, remember? Your brother always seems to know when you do. He's been forgiving until late but after that scene in the market I really think you should respect his wishes and—"

"Bring Lucy to my room near the witching hour."

Happy got silent. "For the traditional means a man might request a lady's presence, correct?"

"If you can't do it without questioning me, I'll find a servant that can."

As if that was the worst thing he could suggest, Happy said, "I'll ask, Your Highness."

"Good. Leave me." He needed to think more carefully without interruptions.

 


	8. Chapter 8

Natsu didn't consider himself vain. Surely, he was more modest than Invel, who spent much of every second week trimming his beard and his hair so his entourage of ladies never fell out of awe of him. He understood the urge, though, waiting there for Lucy, fixing his messy hair in the full-length mirror and smoothing his hands over his tunic again and again until the fabric looked flat and lifeless.

The bell tower sang eleven and then Natsu counted down the minutes until Lucy arrived.

_If,_ he thought as he paced his large chambers, stepping over the curled up corner of a gold rug and twisting around a sword stand with five curved blades cradled in its oak hands, _if she comes. If she doesn't hate me, if she can bring herself to trust me again._ Or at all, really, because he wasn't sure she ever thought of him as someone she could keep in her council. If he was, he'd know why she was so bent on going to Bora.

It was eleven forty-two when his door was tapped on. Natsu peeked out. There was Happy, and beyond him was Lucy. She may have said she was angry but she'd curled her hair and put on pink lip colouring for him, he suspected. He didn't like to think it could have been for someone else.

He opened the door and invited her in.

"Wait here for a moment, Happy?" Natsu asked.

"Yes, Your Highness," Happy said drearily and threw his back against the wall, though they both knew he wouldn't be doing anything after this, nothing exciting, anyway. He wouldn't sleep until Natsu slept, and Natsu wouldn't sleep until he'd had some calamity in his life.

Natsu closed the door. Lucy spun around in the centre of his room, looking at the art on the ceiling. Zeref had paid artists to indulge him with a mural of dragons and curved women.

Lucy wobbled like she was dizzy. Her light blue dress fluttered around her legs as she came to a stop. "This is…"

"Extravagant," Natsu supplied.

"I was going to say not proper behaviour for a prince, inviting me in here so late, but yes, I suppose your decoration of choice is a bit garish."

He scowled and she laughed. "Would you rather be a prince of dragons?"

"I'd rather be no prince at all if it meant freedom."

Lucy shook her head. "You're a liar."

"I'd know it if I were."

She came close to him and her cheeks were dashed with colour. "You like to think you can help people, Crown Prince, and you're realizing that you can do that best being the Crown Prince."

"If that were the case, I wouldn't be sneaking out to beat commoners with my fists."

"Run away then."

He balked. "I can't do that."

"Because…?"

He opened and closed his lips, then sighed. "Because the people of Alvarez may need me. Well played, Lady Lucy."

She bowed shallowly and backed away from him. Natsu watched her pick at trinkets on his dresser, a necklace with a saint's symbol on it moved through her hands, chain shimmering like golden water.

"Were you a thief for Bora?" he blurted suddenly.

Lucy smiled in a not very nice way. "Crown Prince, if thievery was in my skillset, I certainly wouldn't waste my breath asking for gold coins."

Perhaps not.

"I was exactly what I seemed to be. His healer."

Lies and lies and lies.

"So," Lucy put the necklace down and faced him directly and gods, she was beautiful. The picture of innocence. "Why am I here?"

"Because I thought about what you said, I ruined everything."

"How very un-royal of you to admit that."

"I think you were taught a noblewoman's manners but you do not practice them," Natsu said.

"I might be politer if I wasn't deciding whether or not to hate you."

"If you hated me, why dress so nicely and fix your hair?"

One sculpted eyebrow rose. "Because you think I'm beautiful. It's the worst slight of all. Look at what you desire, Crown Prince, and fret over it."

"That seems intentionally cruel and very unlike you."

She stumbled. "You don't know what I'm like. You don't know me."

"I know enough." He'd seen her use her magic, the serenity that draped her when she called on her spirit. He'd felt the warmth in her when he'd kissed her. "I've written you a new poem."

She smiled, intrigued.

"Deceiver's lips make a trickster's kiss. Beautiful eyes make believable lies. She is not an average liar."

Those lips pursed. "Your flattery is barbed."

"Like the Lady Lucy."

"If you've no real poetry to recite and no gold for me, I think I'll be leaving." She tossed her curls over her shoulder and made towards the door.

Natsu blocked her path and held out four gold coins. Lucy looked between them and his eyes, his eyes and them. "Is this a trick?"

"Like I said, I did think about what you said," Natsu responded. "And I may have very well ruined the one thing you asked me not to. But I do, actually, have the power to make it better. Or, at least, Happy does."

"Your manservant?"

"Come in here, Happy," Natsu said loudly.

The door opened and Happy poked his head in cautiously. "Yes, Your Highness?"

"All the way, and close the door."

Happy obeyed and stood with his hands clasped in front of him.

"You'll use your Aera magic to fly her from the castle grounds, and wait at her behest and return her when she's ready."

Happy's mouth dropped open. "I will?"

"Yes."

"Your Highness—"

Natsu gave him his best princely stare and Happy stopped trying to argue. "Very well."

"If guards in the street stop you, you can tell them you're on official business for the Crown Prince, though I don't believe that will stop any thugs," Natsu cautioned Lucy.

"I have my gate keys so I have no fear of them," she promised him with a ghost of a smile like she was nearly excited but mostly skeptical of a prank. "Will I find myself at the gallows tomorrow?"

"It's Cthulhu's Palace for kingslayers and terrorists, actually." He couldn't imagine her in that dark pit, surrounded by bones and rot and shadows. "But I don't need to go to these lengths to get you a place there. My brother's already imprisoned you once, it wouldn't be difficult to convince him to do it again."

"Point taken," she said. "Very well. The night's getting on. How do we do this?"

Natsu went to his balcony and threw open the doors. The palace grounds were quiet here. "The guard changes exactly at midnight. There'll be a one-minute window in which I'm not watched. That's your window of opportunity."

"That's not much time."

"It's not, but Happy and I have done it before."

"Zeref had archers look for us last time," Happy cautioned.

"That was three years ago. He's reassigned them since." He thought. "Bring her to her rooms for three. The watch on that side of the castle switches then."

"Three hours might not be enough time," Lucy said.

"Then you'll be caught outside the palace until dawn and the guards will likely arrest you, with or without my sanction." Zeref was prickly like that.

"I understand."

Natsu pressed a dagger on Happy. It was never wise to go into the city after dark, unarmed and unescorted. Happy was good at staying out of sight, generally, but, "Just in case."

He looked uneasy. "I must have been a very bad person in my previous life to be saddled with such a headstrong prince."

Natsu bared his teeth.

The clock tower's bell started to toll. On the twelfth chime, Happy closed his eyes and wings burst from his back, white feathers looking soft and delicate. Lucy's eyes opened wide and she mouthed the word _angel_. Natsu knew better. Happy was a scrappy boy he pulled from the gutter, away from the knife tips of the other gutter rats that would carve the wings from his back. Everything had a price in Alvarez. Supposed angel wings would fetch a lot of gold, real or fake.

Happy scooped Lucy up in his arms and his wings beat in the small space, lifting them from the balcony in a lop-sided flight. Natsu hoped they'd make it back _up_ to Lucy's balcony when the time came.

He returned to his rooms to wait for Happy's return. He took out a bound book he used to scribe his poetry. A lot of it was bad. He ripped out the pages and fed them to the fire. Then he took up his quill and tried some more.

Hair like golden feather

She smells like sweetest heather

Her voice, a siren song

Is bound to lead me wrong

I'm doomed to blether

He hated it. Writing poetry was _hard._

Natsu started again but got caught shortly after he started, snagged by a lack of sensical inspiration. How could he put into words how he felt when he himself didn't _know_? _Maybe she is a witch,_ he thought. _She wants the coins to visit herb houses to get what she needs for ingredients to make men stupid when she's near._

_And how does she drug them?_

In her kiss, he decided.

That didn't feel right either, though.

He sighed and pulled a poetry book from the dusty shelves above his desk. He brought it back to his bed and flipped through the crinkly pages, trying to see how other bewitched men made sense of how they were feeling.

One man killed the woman he loved and buried her beneath his home.

That didn't seem like the right way to win Lucy over.

Another man pined after the woman he loved, watching her with another man but never doing anything about it.

That didn't seem right.

The third poem he read was so convoluted, he couldn't tell if it was about a woman or not.

Normal people didn't write poetry, he decided. masochists did. Men who enjoyed the agonizing taste of, well… agony.

He wasn't sure if he was that person. He wasn't sure he wasn't. He kept reading.

Natsu didn't remember falling asleep but he must have because the next time he opened his eyes, his candle had burned low and the horizon was twilight-blue. The sun was bullying its way into the sky. Or would be, shortly.

A weight settled on the edge of his mattress. He blinked. Lucy's curls had fallen limp and her cheeks were pink. There was a feather on the shoulder of her blue dress. She looked thrilled. "Thank you, Crown Prince."

He smiled and it felt _real_. "Everything went alright?"

"Perfect." She smoothed back one of Natsu's many errant locks of hair with fingers that smelled of soot and gunpowder. The mystery of Lady Lucy deepened.

She leaned in and kissed him and he realized she'd been holding back on him before. This kiss wrapped him up and turned him upside down and made him feel gutted and happy and terribly confused.

He touched her gold hair and pulled her closer when it felt like she was going to pull away. She let him do it, too, for a moment, invited his hands to linger on her waist, on her hips, smooth up her back and to dig back into her hair again.

Then she bit his lip not so gently and pulled away.

"Don't go," Natsu begged.

"I have work early tomorrow morning. Miss Porlyusica doesn't like it when I'm late."

She didn't like it when _anyone_ was late, but her upstart successor who found her beginnings in the King's dungeon? Miss Porlyusica would cry bloody murder. "See me after, then."

She smiled, not a promise, not a rejection, and left him suffering alone in his bed. Perhaps she still didn't think she liked him very much, leaving him like a starving man with the taste of salvation on his lips.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning, Happy came into the room bright-eyed and red-cheeked while Natsu was struggling to pull on breeches. "I just got news, a man was found murdered by the docks this morning."

"Who?"

"Jacob Lessio."

Natsu stumbled, one leg still out of his pants. "One of my brother's advisors? He's dead?"

" _Yes_. And he was found with a manifesto for the Nightingale."

"What's that?"

"A small trading vessel that was due to make land with stocks of whisky. One of the guards spotted it off the north shore just before three bells this morning but it didn't make land. They say the ship vanished."

"Vanished."

Happy wiggled his fingers in front of his face like smoke rising in the wind. He was near bursting with glee. "Like in a ghost's tale. They found barrels floating in the water, empty. Like someone had gone in there and torn them apart and then sunk the ship. Isn't this wild?"

"How did Jacob die?"

"Someone shot him through the heart."

Natsu smelled gunpowder again, fresh like it was just beneath his nose.

"Are you alright, Your Highness?"

Natsu composed himself and tugged on his other pant leg. "Fine."

* * *

Zeref was in the throne room with a stormy expression on his face. His eyes snapped to Natsu around the body of one of the King's Guard. "Leave us," he said and the man bowed and exited.

"You heard of Jacob, then?" Natsu asked once the door was closed.

"Of course."

"Do we know what happened?"

Zeref crooked his finger and reeled him in like he was pulling a fish on a line. He didn't stop until Natsu was standing in front of him. His eyes burned like the cold winter night. Natsu resisted the urge to step back as Zeref pulled out a manifesto that read _Nightingale_ and gold coins stamped with Fiore's king's likeness. "Coin, and a count of whisky barrels on the ship. Some of those barrels were found in the alley with his body."

"I'm not following."

Zeref crunched up the paper like he just needed his anger to go _somewhere_. "One of our guards saw a woman fleeing the scene."

Natsu's heart sunk further.

"She _climbed from a barrel,_ the same type of barrel found on the _Nightingale,_ and fled when the guard called her," Zeref ground out. "Seeing as how Jacob's dead and speaking to the dead is _not_ in my talents, I have to assume he was bringing people here illegally. Ferrying them over from Fiore in barrels and teleporting them here once they're on the shores so they passed inspection. He must have been selling them."

Natsu let out the breath he'd been holding and drew in another. Was that relief he tasted? Or the iron of fear? Because that did not exonerate Lucy. "I heard the ship disappeared. Did you find any of the other people?"

"No."

Did they drown? Were they safe? Or were they running around the slums, unable to speak the same language, in a foreign city, finding trouble to fall into?

"You look ill. Do you need the healer?" Zeref asked finally when Natsu still had said nothing.

Natsu cleared his throat. "No. What's the next step? Are you trying to find anyone that might have escaped?"

"I'm sending Dimaria to interrogate the bar's owner that had the whisky imported."

"Can I go with her?"

"Absolutely not."

"Please, Zeref," Natsu begged. "I'll die if I don't go."

"You're being dramatic."

"I'm—"

"Bored. Yes. You still can't go."

"Why not?"

Zeref waggled the manifesto in front of Natsu's face and the list went on and on and on. "Because this was a very large shipment and there was a lot of money on the line and if someone sabotaged the meetup, the lion's den is _not_ where the Crown Prince of Alvarez should be."

He was sulking. Always sulking, Happy would say.

Screw Happy.

Natsu turned from the chamber. Out in the hallway, Invel waited with his glasses perched primly on his nose. "Your Highness."

Natsu pushed past him. Invel followed.

"Can I help you?"

Invel shook his head. "Continue."

"Hell," Natsu muttered. "How long are you supposed to follow me for?"

"Until Lady Dimaria returns."

Natsu huffed and went in search of something to raze.

* * *

Dimaria came back empty-handed and tight lipped. Natsu managed to shake Invel in his bedchambers and called for Happy. Maybe his moves were monitored, but Happy could move more freely.

"I need you to find out where the shipments of whisky were destined."

"I'm sure His Majesty told you to leave it be."

"And if you know that, you know exactly how I feel about it."

"I wish you'd get a dog or something, Your Highness. Or better yet, a rabid cheetah. Something or some _one_ to keep you occupied and on your toes."

"Just look into it, Happy."

"You won't get out of the castle."

He looked at his manservant and Happy shook his head. "I won't, either."

"You're good at it."

"Flying around that girl was bad enough. Going against your brother's orders like this…"

"He told _me_ not to investigate, not you," Natsu reminded him.

"We'll see how deep the distinction goes when my head's on a pike."

"It won't be."

"Will I be hung, then? Or maybe drowned? In a vat of whisky for my disobedience? Our Majesty the King has a taste for theatre, it would be exactly the kind of punishment he'd think I deserved."

"And Zeref says _I'm_ dramatic."

"You are. And hotheaded and stubborn."

All those things and more, and worse. He couldn't dream of being left out of the action, though. "You're the only one that can do this for me, please, please, please? If you find no leads, I'll drop it. And if you do…"

"Then you'll drop it."

He never would. Happy knew it, too. He would still do the digging, though, because he was just as hungry for excitement as Natsu, regardless what he said.

* * *

Lucy did not meet him after her training with Miss Porlyusica. She passed him in the hallway on the arm of Eileen Belserion. Lady Eileen's face was as beautiful as a cold statue and her hands were like a demon's. Or a dragon's. People in the castle called her terrible things in the shadows. Natsu thought they were probably right. She had a wicked smile and her hair was so red, some said she soaked it in the blood of her enemies.

If Lucy was worried, she did not show it. She smiled at Natsu serenely when they passed and he tried to see if she was capable of shooting a man in the streets.

The truth was, he wasn't sure.

Happy returned when the sun had set and it wasn't with any fruitful news. He'd bribed one of the foot soldiers in Dimaria's unit to tell him the street they'd visited. The rest of his information he got from beggars he paid handsomely for their soberest account of that day's events.

The shipment of whisky had been destined for the RedMary, a bar on the east end, but the building was boarded up tight, locks on the doors, dust in the windows.

A dead lead, Happy was sure to tell him. Natsu informed him that there were always other avenues.

He just needed to find them.

Four uneventful days dripped past. Sometimes, Natsu thought he'd go mad with boredom, but then Lucy would graze his fingers at the dinner table when passing back his chalice after searching it for poison and she'd flutter her lashes and his heart would speed and he'd think, _perhaps this isn't so bad_. On occasion, her toe would pass over his beneath the table and the sharp tip of her shoe would slide up over his ankle and he'd imagine a wild manner of very un-princely things to do under the table while surrounded by many very astute people.

It might be exciting trying not to get caught.

Lucy's favourite thing to do was walk in front of him after supper and the way she'd twitch her round hips, he'd swear was purposeful. Her scent choked his senses. Every night, he followed her figure until she went left towards her rooms and him and Zeref went right.

"You're getting along, I take it?" Zeref asked that evening.

"I'm not sure we are," he admitted and Zeref laughed.

"Not to worry, if a woman is always sweet, it's likely her hands are behind her back, brewing poison."

"Who told you that?"

"Porlyusica, of course."

Venom, straight from the snake's mouth.

Another day passed. Another day of checking for poison, another day of hallway smiles, another day of Lucy's covert looks over her shoulder, and her hips twitching in her healer's garb. Miss Porlyusica had always looked like a stick bug in those cloths. Lucy looked like an angel pulled from the sky and dropped in the drab halls of Alvarez's stone castle.

Or a demon, perhaps. Dropped there to torment him. How else could he explain the knot in his guts when he saw her leaning over a wounded guard, healing his leg? Or the hot flush when he again saw her with Lady Eileen, looking at him haughtily as if to say, _did you think you'd catch me by myself? And then what, Crown Prince_?

Happy told him he was sulking again.

He told Happy he was ill and to fetch him the healer.

It took hours, but that night, she came to him and her hair had been coiled again. There was a thong of leather around her throat, braided. She clutched it when she entered. Her skirts swirled around her, simple jade-coloured.

"Crown Prince."

"You do remember me."

Lucy's smile smoothed whatever animosity he'd been feeling. "Happy told me you were ill."

"He lied."

" _You_ lied, you mean."

"I needed to see you." His face was flush with the admission.

"Have you ever heard of the boy who cried wolf?"

He did feel ill, though. Ill with a sickness he'd never had before. "I suppose next time I will make sure I'm not a liar." He took her by the hip and pulled her in and Lucy let the tips of her fingers slide over his cheekbone. She did not smell like gunpowder tonight. Tonight she smelled of tinctures and pollen and oleander. He thought of Zeref and his poisons.

"I was going to come to you tonight, before all the smoke and mirrors you used to get me here," she said with a smile and he wanted to believe her.

"Why tonight and not yesterday, or the day before?"

"Lady Eileen keeps me busy."

"Is she unwell?"

Lucy let her eyes droop closed and tilted her head back, exposing her neck. "No one sees me because they're well."

"Will she be alright?"

"With treatment." She cupped the back of his neck and pulled him down towards her throat. Natsu squeezed her tight and kissed her like he'd longed to do. "You could have visited my rooms, Crown Prince. You can go anywhere in the castle."

Anywhere in, just nowhere outside. "I wasn't sure I was welcomed."

"Was my flirting unclear?"

He squeezed the hips that had taunted him for so many days. "You're vexatious."

He didn't think he'd ever been laughed at the way she laughed at him then. "Good." She pulled him again to her throat and Natsu kissed her, lips and tongue, making her skin glisten in the lamplight. Her arms looped around his shoulders and kept him there, even when he tried to pull back and kiss her mouth. She was pushing him down across her chin and her jaw, and down, to her collarbone and her shoulders, demanding she be kissed.

Natsu gripped her waist and could feel the bones of her corset pushing all of her up and down at ridiculous angles that were intentionally used to draw his eye. He'd like it. He'd like it better if he could touch her skin, uninterrupted.

She pushed him against the bed and climbed on top of him. She was a lady and she was not, well-spoken but sharp-tongued and obviously knowledgeable in ways that he didn't suspect a maiden was, confident, touching the place where his muscles knit together and following them down to his breeches, over his shirt and then again under. And then it was just silks and fingers and lips and lips and lips. He was. He was going mad.

She kissed him until he was dizzy and kissed him until he forgot why he ever felt ill in the first place.

She stopped when he felt empty-headed and her dress was ravaged and her thighs were beneath his fingers and he was getting braver and the clock was tolling eleven. "Your Highness?" she asked with swollen lips.

"I don't think I like what always follows," Natsu said and closed his eyes.

"And what's that?"

"You leave me aching and four coins poorer."

She smiled and wriggled against him more and her weight against his hardness eased some of his frustration. When she sat straight again, it would all come rushing back. "It doesn't feel like you don't like it."

Absolutely vexatious.

Natsu waved her to the gold and lapis egg on his nightstand. He'd been expecting how their encounter would go and was prepared. She lifted the lid and counted out four gold coins.

"Is it for a good cause?"

"Many people will thank you for it."

Would his brother, though?

"Can you get me out of the castle tomorrow?"

"The last time I did, a man died."

She stared at him and he stared at her, afraid to ask _did you kill him_ outright and waiting for Lucy offer the information on her own.

She did not.

"Where are you going to go?"

"I have business," she said vaguely. "I'll return to you as I did last time." A promise, or a reward? "Can you do it?"

He nodded slowly.

Lucy kissed him one last time and then she was gone.


	10. Chapter 10

Lucy came to Natsu in a white and burgundy dress the next evening. Her hair was loose in curled into ringlets and her lips were slicked with something clear and wet-looking. She looked fuller than usual and when she stepped into the circle of his arms and he felt up her generous waist, he realized she was wearing but simple a tuttenseck. No corset. Just for him? If he considered the other possibility, she was wearing it for _whoever_ she was rushing to meet tonight, he'd go mad.

"You look lovely." She felt better.

She smiled mischievously. "Some men would say indecent."

"Perhaps that's part of it."

"You're a heathen, Crown Prince."

"Then why come to me like this?"

"Perhaps I wanted you that way?" she suggested and between Natsu's legs got tight.

Lucy's smile could cut glass; she felt everything between them and pushed her body harder against his. Her golden tresses tangled in Natsu's fingers and he held her tightly. She tasted like she'd chewed on rosemary. Her chest expanded and contracted beneath his palms and her hands wandered down his chest, lower and lower and lower. Natsu closed his eyes when she got to the waist of his breeches and held his breath, hoping but not really suspecting she'd go any further. But she did. The flat of her palm brushed over his shaft and he let all of his breath go all at once. Lucy purred. She had him hook, line and sinker and she knew it, too.

There was a terribleness to being vulnerable like that, but it was also liberating in a sense, to just stand at the precipice of some dark and lonely tower and close your eyes and let go and see where you land.

Natsu waited for her to undo the lace at the front of his breeches but Lucy just methodically stroked, down his length, a circle around the tip with her short fingernail, up to the base, squeeze. And again. Feeling brave, he grabbed her behind and she hummed into his mouth. That gave him the courage he needed to fill both of his hands with her breasts.

Lucy let him touch her just enough to make him feel crazy, then broke away. She swiped her fingers at the corners of her lips, wicking away his kiss. She fixed her hair in his full-length mirror. Then she straightened her dress so she didn't look so pawed at. "It's almost midnight."

Nearly the shift change. She'd want to be getting out into the city then. He looked morosely down his front. He strained against his pants; it was starting to hurt.

"I'll come back," she promised and kissed him again, long and humid and totally agonizing.

"I look forward to it," he said foolishly.

She brushed her hand over him again, probably on purpose but pretending as though it wasn't. "Call your manservant?"

Natsu pushed his lungs to the very limit, clearing his head with all the sword drills Dimaria insisted he learned. By the time he got to her second favourite evasion tactics, he was mostly okay. He pulled on the string that rang a bell in the room next to his. In a moment, Happy was tapping on his door. Natsu let him in. He looked between Natsu and Lucy and sighed.

"May I advise?"

"You may not," Natsu said briskly.

Happy muttered beneath his breath, too low for anyone to hear.

Natsu threw open the balcony doors and looked out. The moon was a pale wedge in the cloudless sky. Stars shone all around it. Natsu could see forever. The grounds behind the castle wall and beyond were deserted, save for the guards that patrolled this area, men with swords at their sides. Some had flint guns slung across their backs though they'd only be good for a round before they had to pack the gunpowder again.

Lucy stood at the balcony edge and Happy got in beside her. Natsu was wickedly jealous watching Happy take her in his arms, though he told himself not to be.

The clock tower started chiming, the guards came in so the new ones could go out, and Happy's wings burst from his back like two feathery fans. They captured air and then they were flying. Natsu crossed his fingers as they made it over the wall, waiting for something to go wrong but hoping that everything would go just right.

They made it to the other side without raising the alarm and touched down in a copse of trees. Natsu tried to watch them after that, but they disappeared into the thick pine needles and were gone. He closed his door and returned to his room to wait.

* * *

It was nearly four before Lucy returned to him. She'd traded her gown for a green robe. Once the door was closed behind her, she removed that and Natsu saw that beneath its plain folds was a golden chemise decorated in silver moons. It must have been expensive. Did Bora buy it for her?

_Does it matter_? he wondered, and, _does it not?_

She finally took the tie at the front of his breeches and undid the knot and he thought perhaps it didn't matter at all.

She undid the knot in his shirt, too, and pulled the thread all the way through all of the eyelets, exposing his chest. She trailed her fingers over his abdomen.

"Did your evening go well?" Natsu asked because she hadn't said a thing yet and he was nervous and he wasn't sure if she'd stop again, teasing him until he died frustrated but happily so.

Lucy met his eyes and he couldn't read her expression, it was so complicated. "Sit," she commanded of him and Natsu perched on the corner of his bed, eager and curious and squeezing the life out of his bedsheets.

She undid the tie at the front of her chemise and he could see loads of pale skin. Then she shrugged the shoulders off and the chemise fell all the way to the floor and she was completely bare.

Lucy doused the candle on Natsu's bedside table with a press of her fingers. Natsu vision adjusted to the sudden darkness. Lucy was pulling her golden hair back over her shoulders and stepping into him. He kissed the tips of her breasts and squeezed her bare behind low by her thighs. She sighed and allowed him to pull her on top of him. He settled all the way inside of her and locked his arms around her waist, hands on her hips. She kissed him deeply and moved her body against his and Natsu couldn't remember a time he'd ever fit together with another person quite like this.

* * *

His bed was empty in the morning. He called for Happy and got a hot basin of water he used to wash while Happy placed out a pair of pressed breeches and a tunic embroidered with gold. Very Princely. Zeref would be angry if he ruined them.

"Did you follow her through the city last night?"

"For a bit, but then she used one of her golden keys and disappeared into the earth."

Was magic like that possible? She was amazing. "Did she know you were following her?"

"That's difficult to say, but I think she suspected."

"She didn't say anything last night."

"I didn't suspect you were doing much talking," Happy grumbled.

"We weren't." Natsu yanked his tunic over his head, obscuring his stupid grin and ruining the hair he'd so cautiously slicked back. Happy fixed it for him.

"If I may say so, Your Highness, it seems reckless to continue funding her misadventures."

"I need to know what she's doing."

"Treasonous things, likely."

"Why would you assume that?"

"Because," Happy said gently, "There was another explosion last night, by the docks again."

"So? Maybe a captain overfilled his broiler. Or perhaps someone mislabelled dangerous goods and dropped it. Or any other number of things." Reasonable things. Things more common than the woman he'd taken to bed last night was plotting against his country.

"I was following her in that direction before she disappeared. It seems likely she was involved in some way. Or that she saw what happened, at the very least," Happy said cautiously, like he was nudging a badger.

Natsu locked up all his indignation and tried to think logically. "I need to know. For sure."

"I can follow her again the next time she requests it."

"She'll escape again." Natsu tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"No scheming," Happy demanded.

Natsu pretended he didn't hear him. "I need to be out there, too."

"She'll never agree to carry out her business with you hanging over her shoulder."

"Of course not," not secretive Lucy. "That's why she won't know I'm there. I can be discrete." Dimaria had taught him how to mask his movements, how to blend in with the shadows. She'd taught him how to sneak.

"And how do you suppose you'll get out of the castle?"

"You'll fly me out like you do for her, only you'll have to return for me."

"The guards will be out by then. We'll be seen."

"Not if we direct the guards' attention elsewhere."

"I very much dislike this."

"Noted. Can you fly me?"

"I'm not sure."

"We'll practice, now." Natsu tightened his breeches and straightened his tunic and gave Happy his back. "Quickly," he added. "Breakfast is soon."

Happy sighed. "I'm not sure this will work."

"It used to."

"That was before."

"Before _what_?"

"Before your cooks got better. Before you got fat."

"If I'm heavier, it's with muscle, not lemon cakes. Dimaria would skin me."

"You're awfully defensive for a Prince that doesn't spend his time cramming lemon cakes in his mouth."

"I love you like a brother, Happy, but I swear to god, if you don't be silent, I will tell the cooks to stop making you smoked salmon."

"You're a monster." Happy got in behind Natsu and linked his arms under Natsu's and threaded his fingers together behind Natsu's neck. Happy was sweating and Natsu could feel his muscles bunching.

"This is more intimate than I remember."

"You don't say?"

"Do you want to try a bride carry?"

Happy said, "Just be silent, don't ruin it."

Natsu emptied his mind. "Okay, no ruining. Give it a go."

Happy let go of his breath. The room filled with the scent of magic, and then large feathery wings were taking up most of the space. They curled around Natsu. The bottoms touched the floor, the tops almost the ceiling. This used to work when they were small. He wasn't so sure now.

Happy gave them a beat and Natsu's poetry books knocked down, a family portrait wobbled on the wall, and his bedsheets ruffled, another beat and his dragon statue fell back on his dresser, his colognes toppled over, some spilling, and his swords careened to the ground.

"Keep going," Natsu hissed when he felt Happy waver. "We're almost…"

They raised up off the ground, one inch, two. They were airborne. Natsu cheered.

A solid fist landed on his door, shattering Happy's concentration. His wings wavered and then the magic failed and they both crashed to the floor. Natsu's elbow accidentally sank into Happy's eye and Happy bellowed.

Natsu's door burst open and Zeref looked in. His magic lashed out and pushed Happy aside and back and he probably would have kept going, but Natsu hollered and got in the way.

"Don't! We were just—we were training!"

Zeref's magic retracted completely. He didn't apologize to Happy, who winced as he picked himself up out of the dusty corner and examined the cold welts Zeref's magic left behind. He said, "If you're going to practice magic, do it in the courtyard where you can be seen."

Where you're safe, he meant, where I can keep an eye on you, where I won't wonder if an assassin has snuck into your room to murder you.

Natsu brushed himself off. "What do you want?"

Happy paled at his insolent tone but Natsu didn't care.

Zeref snagged the crown off the stand Natsu perched it on for safekeeping when he didn't feel like being Royal, and placed it on Natsu's head. It was made of heavy gold with a singular blue sapphire in its centre, simple by most standards. "The King's Guard has arrested someone in relation to the minor explosion on the docks early this morning. Our audience is required."

"I'll clean up in here, Your Highness," Happy said.

"Thanks." Natsu rushed to match Zeref's impatient gait. "They were caught setting off the explosion?"

"No, they were caught near the explosion site."

"Like Lucy was?" he heard himself say.

"Yes, but this girl had explosives on her person."

That seemed rather promising.

Zeref opened the Throne Room. There was an audience already. Everyone bowed lowly. There were murmurs of, "Your Majesty," and "Crown Prince."

They only straightened again when both Natsu and Zeref were seated at the front of the room. Natsu picked Lucy out of the crowd. Her hair was in an elaborate weave and she wore her white healer's dress. Natsu tried smiling at her but she looked sombrely at the stained glass above the thrones and would not meet his eye.

The captain of the King's Guard was the newly appointed Silver Fullbuster. He was scarred and craggy, regal-looking in a velvet and rabbit fur-lined cloak. When he bowed, it was so deeply, he was nearly bent double. "Sire."

Zeref waved him on impatiently. "Rise and speak the charges quickly, Commander. It's early and I've yet to have breakfast."

"Bring out the girl," Fullbuster said and two of his cloaked men jumped to do his bidding. They returned from the holding cell on the north side of the room with a woman in tow.

She looked different without the moon and the firelight dancing on her hair, without her brother holding a huge barrel of beer on his shoulder at her side. But Natsu recognized her from Bora's ring. She was Lucy's friend.

"This is the terrorist," Silver said. "We found her with five sticks of dynamite in her pouch and one of my men confirmed they saw her around the Coast Guard's tower moments before it exploded. I think it's an open and shut case. I recommend a trip to Cthulhu's Palace."

Zeref studied the accused. "Do you deny the charges laid against you?"

"No, Your Majesty," she said in a pure and strong voice.

Zeref's knuckles turned white on the arm of his throne. "Why did you do it, girl?"

She drew herself up to her full height. She didn't look like she'd spent the last few hours at the mercy of the King's Guard, dirty and hungry. She looked righteous. "Because men in that building accept bribes so slavers can sneak children out of Alvarez by ship and sell them to wealthy families in Fiore who have a taste for the exotic. And when they're not sneaking children out, they're bringing slaves here and selling them to your citizens who still believe in slavery while their King sits high in his palace ignoring our pleas!"

A murmur went through the throne room.

Zeref said. "Those claims went unsubstantiated."

"Were they lining your pockets, too?" she sneered.

Another murmur followed her accusation.

Zeref looked at her emotionlessly, ignoring everyone else in the room. His eyes were dead; he was in his dangerous place, where he lived when he cut prisoners down in jail cells for speaking too loudly and reaching through the bars.

Natsu was grinding his teeth so badly, he was afraid they would be dust. He prepared for the worst when Zeref stood, but his brother's magic didn't make an appearance. "Bring her to Cthulhu's Palace."

The guards escorted her out. Then Zeref stalked out.

Natsu was left staring at a sea of faces. He thought he was supposed to say something but his mind was blank. He saw a gold sheaf. Lucy. She was rushing out as well, hot on Zeref's heels. Trouble was brewing.

Natsu abandoned his throne, hoping he could douse the fire before it turned into a storm.


	11. Chapter 11

There was always an audience; Zeref had taught Natsu that when he just began page training years and years before. Always; there was always someone watching you. That truth had held up relatively well and made him more cautious with his antics, mostly, until he got bored. That's where he got careless and burned down confessionals.

He found peace between the cracks, in nooks where he could barricade himself from the public eye—like his bedchamber, for instance, and by the stream in the forest. But here in the hallway just outside the Throne Room, there was _nowhere_ to hide, and there was a litany of curious onlookers that goggled at the King marching down the hall, the King's brand-new healer hot on his heels, and the Crown Prince bringing up the rear.

"A word, Your Majesty!" Lucy didn't care about raising her voice to the King. She didn't care about the eyes staring her down, she didn't care about the danger she was putting herself in. There was no one in the world Natsu trusted more than Zeref, but that was because he knew exactly what his brother was capable of, and his various moods. He knew how to stay out of his way when staying out of his way was necessary, and he knew how to soothe him when he was on the brink of an outburst.

Lucy was privy to none of that information and she was in the _get your neck broken with a thought_ zone, but she seemed _determined_ to pursue it.

" _Your Majesty_!"

" _Not_ now!" Zeref _clop, clop, clopped_ down the hall so fast. He pushed servants out of the way and some of them fell. People were whispering now. Natsu didn't hear all that was said but none of it was very good. _The King is in a rage. The terrorist got under his skin. We're all in danger._

Lucy stopped in her tracks. Natsu saw her shoulders square and lift as she brought in a very, very deep breath. Whatever was coming next, it wasn't going to be good.

 _You need to stop it_.

He did the only thing he could think to do. There was a door to his left. It opened to the strategy chamber, where Dimaria kept Zeref appraised of the happenings and threats in his kingdom. Natsu opened it hastily, stuck his hand in the jam and closed with all his might. His hand went numb but he yelled anyway because he knew already it was bad; he was bleeding; his fingers were slick with it.

Lucy swivelled and stared at Natsu. At first, her face was blank, but gradually, she absorbed what was happening and her determined expression made way for concern. She abandoned her cause and scurried back to him. "Natsu…"

More people were whispering. Natsu could focus even less now. His hand was starting to throb, the pain travelling all the way up to his shoulder and all he could think was, _is it supposed to hurt like that?_

"Take him to his room." Zeref had returned as well; his expression was very, very difficult to read but Natsu thought beneath the mask he saw the dregs of anger. Was he mad about the proceedings, or Natsu's not-so-discrete tactic or Lucy's chase?

Lucy ignored Zeref and looped her arm around Natsu's waist. She pulled him close to her and guided him through the crowding hallway and down the right corridor. Zeref was gone.

"How did this happen?" she asked.

"Clumsy," he gasped. "You have your keys, right?" He was dying. His fingers were broken for sure. Maybe his metacarpals, too.

"Always," she said.

Good news.

Better news: there was his door.

Lucy pushed it in. She kicked it closed behind them again and sat Natsu on his bed. Her keys flashed gold in the midday sunlight. She closed her eyes and shined. Moonlight was best for her but her magic was beautiful in sunlight, too. She sparkled like the facets of a diamond, like a broad band of gold, and her spirit filled the world with an omnipresence that was choking. Natsu choked willingly. He loved when she used her magic. Everything was suddenly worth it.

Ophiuchus touched him wordlessly and coolness filled his hand. Suddenly, he could think again.

The work was over with too fast. Lucy said thank you like the spirit cared about such things and dismissed her. Then they were alone, Lucy on her knees in front of him and Natsu itching to push her hair away from her cheek.

She looked angry, though. " _How_ did that happen? And don't say _I'm_ _clumsy_. I know better."

He wasn't able to lie to her, not so boldly. "I closed my hand in the door."

" _Why_? Why would you do that?"

He touched her cheek with his newly healed hand and made her look him in the eye. "To protect you."

"To keep me from challenging your corrupt brother, you mean." Her words were spoken with vehemence, her eyes hard and her gaze steady. He imagined kingdoms could fall beneath her glare. His. His kingdom.

What a peculiar thought. He pushed it aside.

"If that terrorist—"

"Her _name_ is Lisanna and she's _not_ a terrorist."

"If _Lisanna_ is right, Zeref didn't know about those people buying slaves."

"Then why is it happening in his kingdom?"

"He doesn't have control over _everyone_ always. He banned slavery, though, on his own, without pressure from neighbouring countries. If the trade is happening, it's without our knowledge. I promise it."

"That man was in his employ!"

Jacob, she meant. Natsu didn't know how to defend his brother against that accusation other than to say, "He didn't know."

He couldn't have.

Lucy lifted her chin stubbornly. "Your brother isn't a good man."

He wasn't a _nice_ man. Not nice men could be _good_ men. "He always does what's best for the people." He never wavered, not even when the decision was hard. That's what Natsu loved about him. "He said he was going to ban slavery in Alvarez and he did."

"But people can still bring in their slaves!"

"It's complicated." Politics always were.

"It seems pretty simple from where I'm sitting."

Natsu clenched his jaw. "I don't understand you. You don't want there to be slaves but you don't want me to buy out your indenture, and you sneak back to your old slaver almost nightly. You say you don't love him but you can't seem to tell me what's so important there. What is going on?"

Her eyes were flinty hard and for a moment, Natsu thought she was honestly going to tell him, just out of rage. Then the storm passed and she looked soggy and defeated. Her eyes were bright with tears. "I need to think of ways to get Lisanna out of that terrible place. I can't stand the thought of her in there."

"She was caught with explosives."

"So _what_? That's not illegal, is it?"

"Not if you're a miner or a fishermen or a demolition expert, and forgive me, but she doesn't look like _any_ of those."

"She's…"

"Innocent?" Natsu supplied.

She wasn't and both of them knew it. Lucy was quiet, staring at his ceiling, thinking. "What is the cell like?"

"Lightless." He could see no reason to lie to her. "Deep. Full of criminals past." And the carcasses of rats that Kings prior threw down there when the smell would get too bad. She developed an expression that Natsu didn't like. "Please, don't talk about breaking prisoners out, don't even think about it. It puts me in an awkward position _and_ it won't work."

She glanced at him from beneath her lashes and he knew she was about to ask for something impossible.

She didn't disappoint. "I was thinking more legal ways. I was thinking… I was thinking maybe you could talk to him."

Natsu expelled his breath. "Lucy…"

"Please, Natsu. You're his brother. He listens to you."

Zeref didn't listen to _anyone_. "She insulted him _and_ admitted to her crimes. He'll wonder why I'm trying to defend a terrorist."

"That's it, then? She rots in some barbaric jail cell for trying to help people?"

"The law is the law."

"Says the prince that escaped his castle to fight with commoners because he didn't believe that things should be a certain way!"

"There are things I can get away with that other people can't, but conspiracy like this…"

Her lip wobbled and tears spilled over her eyes and her breath hiccupped. "She deserves better. A clean death at the very least. This is cruel."

It was cruel. That was the way the law was writ, though.

 _She won't appreciate that._ _Maybe…_

Maybe her tears made him think and say strange things because when Natsu next opened his mouth, he said, "I'll try to talk to him."

She looked up. Her nose was red like a cherry, her cheeks, too. "Really?"

"Yes."

She stepped into him and kissed him wetly. Her lips wobbled under his. "Thank you, Crown Prince."

Natsu smoothed her hair back and kissed her better; it helped him not think of this crazy crusade he was about to start. "Please don't challenge him again. I'm not sure what he'd do."

She was looking at him from beneath her lashes again and his knees felt weak. "You wouldn't let him harm me."

She _was_ a witch. He dug his fingers into her corseted waist and shook his head. "No."

Lucy rested her cheek on his shoulder. Natsu held her and smoothed her hair. The ringlets were flat now but still soft like a bolt of satin. He got lost in the dichotomy, silk against the rigid bone of her corset. Her chest fluttered on occasion but she was getting herself back under control. When she spoke again, she sounded stuffy but no longer like she was crying.

"I need to leave the castle again tonight."

Natsu sighed and leaned back so he could rest his forehead against hers. "If I begged you to stay?"

She met his eyes furtively. "I can't."

"The King's Guard will be doubling their patrol, though."

"I _need_ to go out." Like it was the most important thing to her. He wanted it to be important to him, too.

"I'll ask Happy," Natsu heard himself say, though he knew it wasn't a wise idea.

"He wasn't very pleased with me last night, I'm afraid he'll refuse."

"Then he says no and you don't go."

"Can't you just command him?"

"I could, but I won't."

That seemed to please something in her rather than make her angry. Natsu didn't understand.

"I'll have your gold when you return to me this evening."

Her smile got lighter at the edges. "Thank you, Crown Prince."

Natsu touched his lips the tip of her nose, her cheekbones, and lastly her mouth. She buried her fingers in his hair and held him close to her, kissing him until his entire body was humming and things southward were this side of painful. She grazed his body with her hands. She tortured him in the worst ways; he thought he'd always want it.

* * *

At dinner, Zeref showed for long enough to fill his mouth with wine and lamb and then he disappeared again. He wouldn't look at Natsu, he glared at Lucy, and he did not speak. Happy minded his own business, standing against the wall, waiting for when he needed to clear the plates. Natsu left a little bit of shank on his and instructed Happy to bundle it up in a cloth and to meet him by the outer wall at half-past six bells. He was wary, of course, but when Natsu arrived at the turret, Happy was there with the package of food.

"Please, tell me we're feeding the crows."

"We're feeding the crows."

"But you _lie_."

"But it was decently told?"

"You shouldn't be proud of how well you can spin a tale, Your Highness. Your subjects won't value it."

"I'll take that under advisement."

Happy groused to himself about bad influences and unruly princes and the Gods cursing him. Natsu looked over his kingdom. Green grass, crooked trees, burnt orange sky that bled into the port. It went on forever. Seemingly peaceful on this side of the city.

He was dying to see its roughness again.

"We need to get Lucy outside of the walls again."

Happy didn't even look surprised. "Your Highness, please. You'll get us both hanged. Think, if I'm gone, you'll have no one left to torment."

"You won't be hanged."

"You _must_ work on your lie-telling."

He was _trying_. "I won't force you to do this, but if we want to know what she's up to, tonight is the night to do it. Please, help me, Happy. I can't think when I'm around her and I'm afraid seeing the truth of her is the only way to break the spell."

Happy's shoulders fell. He had him. "Very well."

"Excellent. You'll take her out then return for me, just like we said. I'll create a distraction. We'll have a few moments to escape."

"And coming back in?"

"You'll see."

"So you don't know."

No, he did not. "Have faith."

Happy sighed. "I suppose if I'm to die tonight, I've lived a full life."

"Dramatics." Natsu produced a black key from his pocket and opened the door on the south side of the turret. There was a dark staircase beyond. He had to duck through spider webs to get through and wings fluttered high, high above.

"What are we doing in this cursed place?" Happy's voice echoed forever.

"I promised Lucy I'd try to help with her friend."

"She does have you in a wicked way."

"I told you."

The stairway went on and on. Natsu used his fire to light the way, and played with the heat on his finger. Happy's looked like a ghost in the shifting flame. He was looking at the stairwell, at the occasional scratches in the moulding, at the rats that scattered, at the spiders and millipedes that retracted into the wall whenever their eyes were touched by light.

It turned damp and the air stunk of bone and rot. Natsu breathed shallowly. Happy barely breathed at all.

Finally, the stairwell flattened and a huge pit became visible. There were no guards: part of the punishment was complete isolation. There was a rope on the wall to lower the prisoners down. Sometimes, they got to use it, other times, they were thrown in without aid. Their legs or backs would break and they'd spend their last days in utter agony.

He hoped Lisanna didn't suffer that fate.

"Be careful," Happy warned when Natsu leaned over the pit and used his fire to light up the carnage below. So many bones, generations of traitors left to rot. Some had laid down in the centre of the pit and died staring at the black ceiling, others leaned against the smooth wall, staring at their feet. Their clothes had been chewed at by insects and rats, and their bones were completely without flesh.

It was horrible.

But there was no Lisanna down there.

"She's probably being interrogated further," Natsu reasoned.

"Or they decided to execute her there and then for her slanderous, loose tongue."

Natsu took the food package from Happy and tied the cloth tight. Then he dropped it in, hoping that she'd search and find it once she arrived. It fell on the desiccated torso of what was once a man. Natsu said a silent apology.

"Let's go, before we're caught down here."

It was time to prepare for some calamity.


	12. Chapter 12

Lucy's dress was the colour of the skin of peaches, so dark it was almost burgundy. There was a large, billowy hood and a place to put her hands in the pockets. Natsu knew because he examined every inch of her when she arrived in his chambers at eleven and three-quarter bells, first with his eyes, and then with his hands. She again wasn't wearing a corset, and again encouraged him to touch her waist, up around her ribs. Her skin tasted like the iron water the servants brought up for baths and magic.

"Natsu," she said his name and it came out like satin, soft, soft, soft, like her skin. He had his hands on her back, then her neck, and then in her mane of gloriously golden hair. Her lips melded to his and he couldn't think beyond what was in front of him.

Lucy gripped his shoulders and made sweet humming sounds against his mouth and gasped at all the right times and he couldn't tell if she actually thought he was the greatest or if it was part of an act and he wasn't sure if he cared.

"Is Happy coming tonight?"

"He agreed."

She held him closer to her. "Thank you for doing this. I don't know how to repay you."

By telling him the truth. "Sometimes, I think there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you. Isn't that crazy? We've only just met."

Lucy smoothed his perpetually messy hair back from his forehead and looked into his eyes. Her gaze was like the night sky, full of secrets. She told him one of them. "I think about you. Almost always."

"You don't sound very happy about it."

"I can't decide if the Gods are rewarding me or punishing me, putting you in my path."

"Maybe we're meant to do some great thing together?" He stole another kiss, desperate and sweet.

Lucy turned her head to the side. "It's almost twelve bells." And he was trying to yank her skirts up, she meant, though she didn't do anything immediately to stop him. He kept going until he felt her bare leg under his palm, then he just smoothed his hand up and down her thigh. She lifted her leg up around his waist, granting him better access. He obliged just once, sliding his thumb all the way up to rub over her centre, then moving back and pushing down her leg.

She shivered. "Why did you stop?"

"To prove that I could." He was suffering for it. He thought through Dimaria's sword drills.

Lucy looked ready to rip her skirts off anyway. Natsu liked that the tables were turned. She visibly gathered her wits and breathed out a long, slow breath. He stepped away from her. It was easier to think without his hands on her.

He retrieved her coins from his lapis egg and dropped them one by one into her outstretched palm. She put them in between her breasts and adjusted so they were no longer visible.

"Did you talk to your brother?"

"I haven't had the opportunity yet." Which wasn't exactly a lie. Zeref was still in a terrible mood. He saw his servants race from his room not an hour ago. One of them had a cold welt on his arm and the look of a spooked deer in his eye.

Lucy's mouth turned down with disappointment.

"I will, though," Natsu rushed to say. "Just as soon as I can."

"She's _suffering_ in that disgusting pit."

All the golden glow of lust faded. "I brought her food. Later tonight, I'll sneak in and bring her water." He'd have to climb into the pit to give it to her. He could just hear Happy screeching about that. "And if Zeref won't be reasonable, then I'll think of a way to break her out of there."

Lucy cast him a furtive glance, trying to see if he was being honest. Natsu met her eye unfaltering, trying to show her just how sincere he was. He hated Cthulhu's Palace. It was a prison kept out of tradition for the very worst of the criminals. He'd only met Lisanna once, but she didn't seem like a hardened kingslayer to him.

She swayed forward and kissed him again. "Thank you."

Natsu heard the soft patter of Happy's feet stop outside his door. It must have been later than he thought if Happy was seeking him out. He opened it up before Happy could knock, so he wasn't drawing too much attention to his rooms, and Happy shuffled in. He wore dark breeches and a tunic, so as not to be seen so easily.

"Be safe tonight," Natsu told Lucy. She smiled tightly and let Happy lead her out onto the balcony. The clock started tolling. Happy unfurled his giant angel's wings and then they were gone.

Natsu waited for one breath, two, and then he stripped off his tunic and breeches and replaced them with clothing dark like Happy's. Then he, too, exited onto the balcony with his magic in his hand.

He could see the abandoned stable from where he was. Earlier that evening, he'd patrolled the grounds in front of his room with a lantern that he'd punctured. He looked for the faint glisten of oil in the sand, aimed, then threw his fire.

Suddenly, the trail of lamp oil was blazing and the fire was racing for the stable. Natsu choked out the trail it left so nothing else caught ablaze.

Old hay caught fire with a dry _puff_ , and abruptly, the night was dancing orange and yellow. Men were yelling and scrambling to get water, and Happy was returning to Natsu's balcony. He rushed to get in behind Natsu and didn't complain about their closeness when he lifted them into the air.

There was a moment where they dipped dangerously low and Natsu was afraid either he was going to wind up on the ground with a split head, or one of the guards was going to look away from the fire and spot them careening like drunk seagulls, but then the wind caught under Happy's wings and they bobbed into the air, higher and higher, over the heads of running guards, over the wall.

It was irrational but even the air tasted differently outside the castle walls. Natsu breathed it in deeply. Lucy's scent was there for him to catch. Happy dropped him to the ground and they started running, through a path in the forest, away from the castle and towards the city centre.

Natsu disguised himself with soot just as soon as he could, smearing it through his hair and on his face, so he looked like a stoker, come off the sea for a spell, filthy with the coal they shovelled, or maybe like a miner after a hard day's work, come into town to burn what he'd earned.

He made sure to look at all the ladies and all the street performers in an attempt to blend in while he followed Lucy's trail. He bought a stick of meat from a cart on the corner and paid a bar for a pint that he took out into the city. They ducked behind carriages and swung in through the open door of a bar a time or two to avoid the King's Guard as they patrolled the streets, looking for miscreants and terrorists. Lucy was so good at disappearing, even Natsu lost her trail for a while.

He sniffed her out again on the other side of the river. She was sitting on a bench beside a woman with light hair.

"Do you have the coin?"

Lucy reached between her breasts and pulled out one of the four coins Natsu gave her. The girl snatched it up and replaced it with a vial that stunk like oleander. "It's potent. One drop and he's done. Careful not to get it on yourself. You'll be toast, too."

"Thank you, Mary." Lucy put the vial in her pocket.

Happy seethed. "They're conspiring murder. We should arrest her."

Natsu didn't think it was as easy as that. He held Happy back and shook his head.

Mary rose and left. A moment later, a man in a suit joined Lucy. She handed over the rest of the coins. "Dock fifteen. Use this to pay off the guards. If you get caught, close your gate. I can't help you if they put you in that dungeon. There're wards there that prevent the use of magic."

"Lisanna?" he asked.

Lucy shook her head. "I don't know. I might have help with her but…"

"The prince?" the man asked.

"I don't think he's like his brother."

The man squeezed her hand. "Be careful, Lucy. With the prince and with Bora. He's stupid but I don't think he's blind. He's going to trace this back to you eventually."

"Bora thinks I'm too stupid and in love to betray him," she said airily.

"Not all men can be caught by a kiss."

"Just go, Loke, the ship's docking soon and you're running out of time."

He rose and left. Lucy sat there for another moment, picking at her nails, thinking. Then she stood, brandished a golden key, and one of her spirits appeared.

"That's the digger!" Happy hissed.

And sure enough, the ground at Lucy's feet churned, and she was gone. The hole closed up again. Natsu popped out his lip. "She could get out of the castle without our help."

"She needs your coin, though, to pay for her treason."

Natsu diligently ignored him. He needed the entire story.

He wandered through the city, trying to catch her scent again. Pedlars and thieves waited in the shadows. When someone tried to swipe his wallet, he snagged their arm and bent their wrist back. They fled and he walked on with a smile, thinking, _this is my city_. And nothing could touch him here.

"I worry you love this too much," Happy said.

Every single bit of it. The city was livelier than the castle could ever hope to be, full of loud, raucous voices, fights, laughter, screams, smells, wonderful and foul. There was art and there was destruction and there was despair and there was joy and he could _feel_ all of it, right down in his bones. He was starving for it. The Rogue Prince they would call him when he laid down at last to die.

A man was pushed out of a tavern, his face covered in blood and his hands raw. Another man was pushed out a second later and they fell right back into the fight they'd been having.

"Isn't this fantastic?" Natsu crowed while Happy sidestepped them with distaste and grabbed Natsu by the back of the neck before he could leap in there, too.

"No. Now, where did that girl go?"

Natsu sighed and faced forward again. Keeping a low profile meant not jumping into a street brawl. He _knew_ that. And he had to find Lucy.

He huffed the air and _finally_ caught the scent of her again.

"This way." Natsu twisted down a dark, dingy alley. There were eyes in the deepest blacks and they were watching them, waiting for an easy mark to roll, a careless traveller or a Prince very much out of place. These vagabonds were more dangerous than the last, Natsu figured; they weren't afraid of what hid in the shadows.

Natsu ducked his head and walked briskly. Happy tucked his face into his collar and did the same. He understood better than most what it was to be on the streets at someone else's mercy. His back still bore the scars of the entrepreneurial vagrants that tried to free him of his wings.

Someone to his left reached for him. Natsu's attention focused. It was a young girl. He didn't want to have to hurt her. He used his magic to draw a ring of fire around her, throwing them all into sudden relief. She gasped and hid her face from the blinding light. There was a knife in her hand and a tattoo on her forearm, a sunset moth penned out in great detail. The pink on the bottom of its wings matched the pink in her hair.

"Don't."

Murmurs cascaded throughout the alley, of fires and princes. He wasn't the _only_ fire mage in Alvarez, of course, but he was the most notable. _Maybe they'll whisper but ultimately think it's ridiculous that the Crown Prince is in a back alley after sunset_? He might if he was one of them.

Natsu resisted the urge to look back over his shoulder, depending on his hearing and hours of Dimaria's training to tell him if he was being stalked.

Several people leapt to their feet. Natsu tensed, but they ran in the other direction, back from where they'd entered.

"That's trouble," Happy promised. "We need to go back."

"We need to find Lucy." He wouldn't leave without knowing what she was doing. He doused his fire and hurried on and trusted that Happy would follow, tucking into another alley with more watchers. This time, no one approached them. A sick, thick smoke was in the air and everyone here was lethargic, except for one man, who bent double at the waist and rejected everything in his stomach.

Natsu couldn't believe Lucy walked through this place, but there was no mistaking her delicate scent once he got past the actinic stench of the city.

He knew where she was going once they passed the blacksmith shop. Back to Bora. He didn't know _why_ he was surprised. They veered off the road onto a dirt path and into the forest. Up, up, up the ground sloped, to the top of a hill. The forest opened up and there was Bora's fight ring and his tent. And there was Lucy in her golden glory, bowing for Bora.

Natsu forwent the easy path through the open field, choosing instead to go through the forest to get closer. Happy kept stepping on sticks and drawing the attention of those watchers on the outer edge of the ring. They hadn't been spotted yet, but people were looking.

"You're too noisy. Wait here," Natsu commanded.

Happy looked properly abashed. "Yes, Your Highness."

Natsu rolled his eyes as he walked away. No matter _how many_ times he told him, Happy couldn't stop calling him that.

There was a great pine not ten feet from Bora's tent, its trunk so wide, Natsu could hide behind it. Bora's tent flap was closed but Natsu could hear Bora inside asking Lucy,

"Does he love you?"

"I think he cares for me, yes," Lucy responded.

"But here you are, back in my tent." He cackled. "He's a fool."

"He's brash sometimes, but I don't think he's a fool." She sounded a little defensive.

"Well, you're hardly qualified to make that distinction, are you?"

Lucy got quiet.

Bora asked, "Did you figure out where they're patrolling?"

"I'm watched all the time, and I don't have access to the King's Guard patrols. I'm a healer, not a tactician." She sounded annoyed.

"After you got taken away from me, you told me this was a good thing, Lucy. You said 'Bora, you're missing your healer, it's true, but I'll watch in the castle for you, I'll tell you when they're closing in on your ships, I'll tell you which docks they're patrolling.'"

"I'm trying."

"Not hard _enough_. You say he cares for you. Then find out what he knows."

"I'm _trying_ ," Lucy said again. "I can't just force him to speak."

Bora's voice got low. "I don't believe you've even asked, have you?"

"I can't expose myself."

"Is that it? Or do you care about him, too?"

There was a rustle of skirts as Lucy stepped forward. "The Crown Prince is kind. But he doesn't understand me. Not like you." Natsu imagined Lucy pressed against Bora, her hands on his shoulders. "When is Mister Geer arriving?"

Natsu had been listening carefully but shot to attention at the mention of Mard Geer. He was a respected part of his brother's council, in charge of international trading affairs.

Natsu heard Bora take in a deep breath and let it out again. He sounded calmer when he said, "Shortly."

"I'll get everything ready." The tent flap pushed aside and Lucy exited. Her skin glowed like she'd swallowed the moon. Her eyes flicked left, and then right, and seemed to linger on him for a moment. Then she moved on, to the tall man that carried the barrel of beer on his shoulder. His shoulders looked hunched tonight and his movements were listless.

Natsu moved back towards Happy. He wasn't where Natsu left him, though. He followed his scent out of the forest and onto the road and that's where he saw the gold and red glow of an armed King's Guard unit. At its forefront was Dimaria and she only had eyes for him.


	13. Chapter 13

Dimaria wore her anger like most women wore dresses, like it was a beautiful thing she savoured the feel of. Moonlight slid down her unsheathed sword, making it appear deadly sharp. She never looked more perfect than when she was wielding her sword.

Natsu just hated it when it was being wielded at _him._

"If you're going to escape into the city, at least find a better disguise, and _don't_ use your magic," Dimaria said. "My people spotted you immediately."

The runners in the alley, of course. He knew that was going to bring him trouble; he just didn't imagine trouble was _Dimaria_. He very much didn't want to be there and scoured the grounds for an escape route.

"Don't think of running," Dimaria warned; she'd always been excellent at reading his intentions.

Natsu swivelled on his heel anyway. He blinked and Dimaria was suddenly _there_. She used her sword's flat edge to slap him in the chest, sending him backward so hard and so fast, he ended up on his rump, pointy stones digging into the palms of his hands and his thighs.

"Damnit, Dimaria." That had _hurt_.

She stood over him, expressionless, and he knew he was in for it. "Rise."

Likely so she could push him down again. Natsu inched back a couple of feet before getting vertical. It was always best to have some space between them. She monitored him like he was a bug posed for squishing. Natsu thought, _I am not a bug. I am not a bug. I am not._ She could _smell_ weakness. He wouldn't be grist for her mill.

"Where is your accomplice?"

"My accomplice?" Natsu repeated purely to stall for time.

" _Where is Happy_?" she asked expressly.

"At the castle, I guess," Natsu said. "I came here on my own."

"So if I have my men search the woods...?"

She would certainly find more than Happy. How would Lucy explain her absence from the castle grounds? As Zeref's healer, she was supposed to be available to him _always_ , day or night. Sneaking out like this would be a punishable offence. Now imagine if he knew she was sneaking back to her old employer… she'd be keeping Lisanna company in Cthulhu's Palace.

Natsu made his expression flat as to not let on to his nervousness. "I didn't have help."

Dimaria's expression never changed. "Spread out, search the area."

Desperate, Natsu said a prayer before razing the space between them and making an honest break for it, laying her armed guards low and tearing through the streets. Men yelled and groaned as flames lapped happily at cloth and heated up steel to unbearable degrees. The clatter of armour being shucked off and Dimaria's frustrated huff chased him.

* * *

There was a large, gilded mirror in Zeref's room. Natsu made faces in its glossy surface, examining the shiner Dimaria left with the pommel of her sword sometime near three-thirty that morning when she'd finally caught up with him. It was a bad one but he didn't even mind all that much. Lucy would be the one to heal it.

If she'd made it back to the castle undetected. He hadn't had chance to check yet. Honestly, he was afraid to. If she hadn't made it back, he wanted to go back out to find her. Then he'd have to request permission to leave because there would be no more sneaking out for him, not tonight.

Zeref would never agree.

Natsu slowly lowered himself to the wooden framed armchair Zeref kept in his private chambers. He didn't spend much time here, not since he was a kid, but it'd barely changed. Sparse furniture and modest decorations, though poised. Just like his brother. Except when Zeref was angry. Then he paced like a bear. Like now, for instance. His boots clunked heavily on the floor and black tendrils of magic trailed after him. The servants that brought them tea opened and closed the door as gently as they could, and rushed out just as soon as they were able, as if afraid of drawing his attention.

Natsu didn't have the privilege of ducking quietly out of the room.

He waited as patiently as he could for Zeref to speak. The problem was, he wasn't very patient. He sipped his tea. It was so hot, it burned the roof of his mouth. He put down his cup and played with his fire instead to occupy his thoughts.

A branch of shadow lashed out and smothered the flame and burned Natsu's finger with cold. He had Zeref's attention. He looked up into Zeref's burning eyes and actually kind of wished he didn't. Dimaria had been bad enough.

"There is _always_ a price on the heads of royalty, you know this, don't you?" Zeref led with.

"Well enough," Natsu responded.

"If Dimaria hadn't found you, you could be in someone's cargo hold, bound for Fiore, where their king would use you as leverage!" Zeref's entire neck was red, he was so angry.

"Leverage for what, exactly?"

"For the war we're not fighting!"

Now he was confused. "If we're not at war…"

Zeref stopped pacing so he could stand directly in front of Natsu. "Do you purposefully know nothing of politics, or is your head really just that empty?"

Natsu wasn't good at being princely, true. He didn't really _have_ to be, either. Show up for meetings, look presentable, don't do anything too stupid. Present a united front. That's all Zeref wanted, generally, and Natsu got a pass on everything else, but today, his irritation was wearing through and Natsu could see he _had_ wanted more from him, even if he hadn't voiced it. Natsu tried to keep the hurt from his face and was pretty sure he failed. "I was careful."

"A careful man doesn't set fire to the stables, announcing his departure, and they don't use their magic in the streets for spies to immediately spot."

"There was a girl. She had a knife."

Zeref shook his head and started pacing again. Natsu didn't need for him to call him an idiot, he could _feel_ his scorn. Zeref asked, "What were you doing out there?"

Natsu flexed his liar's muscle. It'd been dormant for years. "I wanted to fight again."

Zeref was so used to his restless behaviour, so used to his brother being _truthful_ , he accepted the answer. "You burned down our _stable_ so you could beat some commoners in the head."

"Our _old_ stable. It had to go anyway."

Zeref's eye twitched. "I try to be reasonable with you and you still sneak out behind my back."

"I'm—"

"Bored," Zeref cut in. "Everyone knows. It makes you reckless and irresponsible, which makes _us_ vulnerable."

Natsu sighed. He felt weariness deep, deep in his bones. It was late and he was tired of this. He was tired of just about everything. "I'm sorry."

Zeref's pacing lost the decisive _thud_ of his boot. "There are delegates that are arriving from Fiore tomorrow. Promise me you won't go into the city anymore without an escort. I don't trust them."

Natsu looked up from a spot he'd been studying on the floor. "Why are they coming here?"

"I've invited them to discuss recent pressures on our truce."

He felt some of his weariness drain away. "The slaving." He _knew_ Zeref wasn't crooked like Lucy accused. His brother wasn't a good man, but he was a decent one.

Zeref met his eyes. "If he's made it back from your escapades, send your manservant to fetch Lucy so she can take care of your eye. The delegation is arriving by sea tomorrow morning. I need you on the docks with me to welcome them. You need to make a good impression."

Natsu's shoulders twitched involuntarily. His guilty tell. Dimaria was right, Zeref did know Happy was the one that helped him get out. It seemed like he'd used up all of his anger, though. "Very well. What time?"

"Eight bells. Then you can do what you want with your day until six bells when we have our welcoming feast."

He'd have to be up early, that meant, but then he could go back to sleep, too. And Zeref wouldn't complain about it because he'd want him well-rested for excellent impression making later on. He was about to be living the dream, really.

"Before I go, I wanted to speak to you about Lisanna Strauss."

"It's late," Zeref said.

"I know." But Natsu couldn't see a better segue or another time when they'd have so much privacy. "I think Cthulhu's Palace is too harsh of a punishment."

"That's where traitors are sent. It's always been."

"I know, but she was just trying to do what's right. She was trying to expose traitors in our country, men that blatantly go against your rule—"

"She's _undermined_ my rule."

"She should be _rewarded_ —"

"Is that how you feel, or how Lucy feels?" Zeref asked pointedly.

Natsu clammed up, unable to think of a good reply.

"If that girl has things she needs to say to me, I welcome her to voice them, in private." Where he could control the conversation and quash any rumours she might stir up by any means he felt necessary, he meant. His eyes were dead again.

Natsu stood. "She believes in doing the right thing. Like Lisanna does. Like _I_ do."

For an instant, Natsu thought Zeref would order _him_ thrown into Cthulhu's Palace. Then the monster fled from his eyes. He just looked tired. "We'll talk more about it in the morning."

Natsu snatched onto the thread like it was a life raft in a storm. "Thank you."

Zeref watched him exit, silent.

* * *

Before returning to his room, Natsu tried to keep the promise he made to Lucy, but when he snuck up onto the roof and went through the door in the turret, using his fires to light his way down into the dank, dreary dregs of Cthulhu's Palace, he could see no sign of Lisanna. The pit was empty, the food he'd left for her torn open and nibbled upon by rats that were lured in by the scent but would eventually die down there, starved or dehydrated.

He retraced his steps, his mind troubled. He knew his room was occupied before he opened the door. There was mud trailing into it, for one thing, left behind by a couple pairs of feet. One set of boots had gone past the threshold, the other had continued on to the room next door. Happy's. Which meant the first pair belonged to…

Natsu opened the door and Lucy was there. She'd stripped off the dress she'd snuck out with, right down to her peach-coloured camisole, and cleaned herself in Natsu's washbasin. The water was grimy brown and probably freezing cold. Her face broke out in relief when she spotted him, a wavering smile on her mouth.

"I was so worried!" She didn't bother drying her hands. She came to him and grabbed him by the tunic, bringing him in. "Happy told me you snuck out, too. He said that horrible woman followed you—"

"Dimaria's not that terrible," Natsu said automatically.

"I thought your brother would punish you—"

"He's also not that bad."

Natsu couldn't see her face but he felt her fingers tighten and knew she disagreed. "What did he say to you?"

"He was angry. He thinks just Happy and I were out, though. He doesn't know about you." And he would do almost anything to keep it that way. "How did you get back in?"

Lucy leaned back; shame tinted her cheeks. "One of my spirits can dig tunnels."

He knew, of course, but it was nice to hear her admit it. "Why go through the trouble of having Happy fly you out, then?"

"I haven't had much reason to trust people since coming into Bora's company," she said quietly. "He knew I was a healer so that's what he used me for. Imagine if he knew I could do other things, too, with other spirits. Virgo could hurt people. I never want my magic to be used in that way."

By slavers or raging kings. Natsu started undoing his soiled tunic. It smelled like sweat and smoke after his race through the streets, and the death of Cthulhu's Palace. "I followed you to Bora." Lucy looked away, her cheek pinched between her teeth. Natsu touched her chin and made her look at him. "What were you doing out there?"

Lucy looked mad for an instant. Then her shoulders dropped. "I want to change the world."

She said it so boldly, and with such resignation, Natsu believed her. "How does that involve Bora?"

"He is the go-between for the slavers and the buyers. He has contacts in the palace and around the city. He keeps some of the guards on his payroll."

"And he was hoping you'd be a spy for him in the castle."

Her cheeks got redder. "That's not—"

"I _heard_ you."

She huffed. "You shouldn't have spied on me."

"You shouldn't have snuck out to aid slavers!"

"I'm _trying_ to help the people he brings in!" Lucy exclaimed. "All of us are. Lisanna was trying to draw attention to the officials involved and I was trying to help the slaves escape before they were sold."

Natsu remembered the empty boat that day on the water when Lucy was arrested. "You _did_ attack the harbour."

"I had to act quickly. Once the boat docked, that man that could teleport would get to them. I felt awful, all those people in the water, all the damage, and Aquarius was _furious_ that I just dropped her key in the canal, but I didn't know how else to do it when you were there."

"Then why meet me there at all, if you thought I was just going to be in the way?" He didn't know if he was mostly angry or hurt.

She bit her lip until it turned white. "I thought it would be nice to have someone official as my witness, to exonerate me, should I need it."

"You _used_ me, you mean." His stomach felt like it was full of stones.

"I never asked for anything from you," Lucy said. "You just gave."

"I was powerless to say no."

She lifted her brow; it was not a very nice expression. "The only one that has all of the power here is you, Crown Prince. It's always been so, and if you don't believe me, go ahead, lift your voice and see how quickly I'm thrown in the dungeon."

"I…"

"Exactly. So be furious, but don't pretend you're a victim. That title belongs to the children and the men and women that are being sold at criminally low prices to disgusting aristocrats that believe it's their right to own a person. In front of the blind eyes of Alvarez's royalty, no less. This country and its royals are shameless."

She walked out then and Natsu didn't know how to follow.


	14. Chapter 14

Natsu spent his night tossing and turning, catching sleep in fits and spurts. In the moments he was able to, he dreamed about Lucy, mostly, repeating their last meeting, and when she deigned to leave his head, Lisanna took her place, suffering in the dungeon, alone and cold and getting poked by shards of bones, those that would sooner rather than later, make the bed on which she died. Unless he did something.

Around five, he could pretend to sleep no longer and threw off his blankets and dressed.

The hallways were empty save for the occasional servant. They bowed their heads and muttered greetings to him, too polite by half to ask why he was up so uncharacteristically early.

Natsu went to the kitchens first and wrapped a fresh apple turnover in a clean cloth. It smelled wonderful but his mouth wouldn't water for it. His stomach felt like a sack of bricks. He then went out on the terrace and snuck between the guard patrols to the turret. The sun was straining against the horizon, turning the sky creamed pinks and purples against a bed of clouds. It would rain soon.

The turret door squeaked coming open. Natsu dashed inside and closed it again before any of the guards could come to investigate. His fire spurted to life ahead of him, guiding his way. He could see his footprints in the dust, and Happy's beside his. He followed them down, beneath the stares of spiders and rats, into the cold and damp. Into the stench of desiccated bone and death. He listened for sobs but heard none. He prayed Lisanna hadn't taken her life before he could convince Zeref to release her.

The stairs flattened before him and the pit came into view. Natsu edged close to it and looked into its depths. Bones and bones and bones. Empty eye sockets stared up at him, collarbones jutted in his direction, femurs and ulnas, but no Lisannas.

_Did she escape?_ How would she, though? She left the Throne Room with a guard, and the only people that had access to this part of the castle were those with keys. Him and Zeref and the Captain of the Guard.

_Besides,_ niggled a horrible little voice in his mind, _you only saw yours and Happy's steps coming down here. No one's been down in_ years.

He knew it was true. The air didn't linger with Lisanna's scent or anyone else's except for Happy's.

_So what happened?_

All possible explanations were gruesome. Zeref _was_ angry that day when he escorted Lisanna off. He wouldn't have wanted to kill her in front of everyone. _What if_ …

She had been impertinent. If she was _that_ vocal in front of an audience, what might she have been like behind closed doors? Most of the time, Natsu didn't know what his brother would do, but today he felt sure it wouldn't be let a _known_ traitor speak to him so disrespectfully.

_Fool_. _She's probably been in an unmarked grave for days, and you've been lying to Lucy and feeding the rats._

He swivelled and took the long staircase two steps at a time. He was out of breath when he reached the top and incautious. He tore open the door and staggered out onto the terrace directly into the path of Silver Fullbuster.

He looked surprised at first, but that surprise quickly melded into frustration. He passed Natsu and locked the turret door. "Your Highness. Cthulhu's Palace is no place for a prince."

Silver may have taken the Captain of the Guard position from him, but he was still a servant to the crown. Natsu drew himself up. "Every place in the palace is a place for the prince. Where is the girl that was imprisoned here?"

"I'm not at liberty to discuss the status of terrorists."

To Natsu's ears, that could mean only one thing. "He killed her." He was cold all over, and so angry, his throat felt small.

Silver's expression was impassive. "You should return to your rooms, I understand you and the King are greeting an important delegation this morning."

Returning to his rooms was the _last_ thing he had in mind. Natsu stormed off the terrace as the sun was peeking over the horizon, and back into the palace. His feet remembered their course well, he could have done this route blind. Servants leapt to get out of his way.

With Fury propelling him forward, Natsu thought _nothing_ would stop him, but he saw Lady Eileen, Dimaria and Invel streaming into Zeref's chambers and slowed. Everyone looked very dire. "What's going on?"

Lady Eileen took in his dishevelled state and barely held in her disdain. Natsu resisted the urge to flatten his unruly hair as he waited for an answer.

"Come, Natsu," Zeref called from inside his room. He sounded resigned.

Natsu streamed in after Invel and closed the door. Zeref was standing by his window, dressed in his finest. He looked alert and well-rested, bathed in the orange light of the new sun. His crown sat on his brushed hair and his clothes were pressed. The only thing to shatter his near-perfect image was the deep bruises beneath his eyes. He was exhausted. Or stressed. Or both.

"What is this?" Natsu asked as Zeref's most trusted advisors arranged themselves around his chambers and waited patiently for their king to speak.

"Mard Geer was found in the gutters this morning, poisoned with oleander." Zeref held out his hand, and the parchment Natsu didn't notice earlier. "He'd been stripped of all his valuables, of course." Nothing lasted long on the streets here. "This was the only thing found with his body."

Natsu peeked over Lady Eileen's shoulder, reading as quickly as he could manage. Names of highborn Alvarez citizens, and amounts. "What is it?"

"I _believe_ it's a ledger of slave trade," Zeref said with a sigh.

Another one from Zeref's inner circle. That did _not_ bode well. _Is there a network of them close to us?_ Natsu wondered. And if that was the case, _who_ could they trust?

"Dimaria, take your people and investigate. Invel, go to Mard's residence and tear it apart, try to validate my suspicions."

"And me, Your Majesty?" Lady Eileen asked with a whisper of a smile.

"I need you with me today, the delegation will be expecting it, but I want you to interview each of them as covertly as possible, _without_ alerting them to our predicament, to see if this is a ploy to undermine us. It's rather convenient that Mard Geer dies the night before the delegation arrives with evidence of slave trading on him."

Natsu opened and closed his mouth twice with the intention of telling Zeref what he saw the previous night, Lucy bargaining poison from a woman after dark. Lucy serving Mard Geer last night in Bora's tent, but he couldn't figure out a way to do it without implicating her. She was right, in a way, he _did_ have all of the power in their relationship. He had the power to have her stripped of her rank and thrown in Cthulhu's Palace. He had the power to see her executed without trial. So why didn't he have the power to flush out a conspiring murderer?

"Speak of this to no one." Zeref was looking directly at Natsu. Natsu gave a subtle nod of his head, though he didn't mean it. He had every intention of speaking to Lucy about it. Just as soon as he could.

"You're dismissed."

Zeref's people filtered out. Natsu lingered. Zeref turned away, looking out the window again. "I thought I told you to get your eye healed? The delegation will be here soon."

"Yes," Natsu said, touching the bottom of his black eye absently. He'd forgotten about it.

"Is there something else you need?" Zeref asked when Natsu didn't immediately scurry out.

"Lisanna—"

Zeref's body glowed with dark magic. He was on an even shorter fuse than usual. "I told you last night we'd discuss her _later._ That isn't now."

"I just want to know if she's dead," Natsu spoke plainly.

Zeref turned from the window, brow knitted. "Why would you ask that?"

"She's not in the dungeon."

Zeref's mouth got tight. "Cthulhu's Palace is off limits."

"Not to me."

"To everyone I _say_ it's off limits to _._ You're not to go in there."

Suspicious, Natsu dug in further. "Why? What are you hiding?"

"Matters of our kingdom have never interested you before."

True. Natsu didn't have a good defence, other than outrage. "I'm your brother. I should know when you're sentencing prisoners to death."

Zeref turned back to the window. Natsu stalked towards him, hand outstretched for Zeref's shoulder. Cold, black magic exploded out of Zeref like spider's legs and pushed Natsu back forcefully until he was at the door, panting from the pain and rubbing his chest. Zeref said, "You need to get ready. Fiore's people will be here soon."

The conversation was over. For now, at least.

Natsu stalked out of Zeref's room again and returned to his own. Happy was up and had a bowl of hot water and clean, pressed clothes waiting for him. Natsu's crown was out, too. Happy polished it with a soft cloth. Everything was to look perfect today. It made him mad enough to scream.

"Your eye, Your Highness," Happy gasped as soon as he saw him. "What happened?"

Natsu looked to the ceiling and tried to let go of his anger. "Dimaria." He'd had worse shiners but this one was garnering a lot of attention.

Happy called her a not very civil name. He pressed his lips together immediately afterwards and looked at Natsu sheepishly. Natsu wouldn't scold him for it, though. Dimaria hadn't been her best self last night. "My brother wants you to fetch Lucy for me." Maybe he'd tell her about Lisanna. Was it kinder? Her death probably was.

"You've already seen His Majesty?" Happy turned even more sheepish.

"He knows you were out with me last night if that's what you're wondering," Natsu said shortly. "He doesn't seem angry; he has other things on his mind." Murder and mayhem went together like the ocean and sand. There was no sense hiding the truth from him, Happy would learn about it anyway. "Mard Geer was found in the gutter this morning. Poisoned. By oleander"

Happy's jaw dropped. "Did you tell His Majesty—"

"I haven't told him _anything_ yet, and neither are you," Natsu barked. "Swear to me."

Happy dropped his eyes and plunked a wash towel in Natsu's washbasin.

"Happy."

"Please, Natsu." This might have been the first time Natsu didn't have to ask him to use his name. "Please don't ask me to lie for her."

"I need facts. I won't have Zeref throw her in the dungeons without them." Or tear her apart even _before_ she got there. "So be silent. Promise me."

Happy sighed, dejected. "I can't be silent forever."

That was as good as a yes. For a little while, at least. "Thank you."

"May I at least recommend a different healer? One we're more certain won't poison you?" Happy quietly suggested.

"No." Because despite everything, he still wanted to see her.

Happy looked helpless and frustrated. Natsu felt bad but he wouldn't move on the subject.

The bell tower struck seven bells. They would be leaving for the harbour shortly. "Will you fetch her?" Natsu asked.

Happy skulked out of the room. Natsu stripped his shirt and got to scrubbing. Dimaria had gotten him in less obvious places, as well. He had bruises all down his chest and one on the small of his back, his elbow was scraped. She'd gone easy on him, all things considered. She probably enjoyed their chase through the city. Unlike the traffickers she tracked to a dead end the other day, he was a target she could capture and beat into submission.

He shucked off his hose and put on the fresh pair Happy left out, then put on his tunic, a surcoat embroidered with Alvarez's coat of arms, and a soft black cloak. Last was his crown. He was twisting it between his hands, thinking about what it meant to be the Crown Prince, with the power to condemn a person to a life of utter misery, or to take away their lives completely, when Happy returned, cheeks ruddy.

"What is it?"

"She refuses." And he looked righteously mad about it. "Shall I call the guards?"

Lucy was posturing. Proving that she wasn't a slave? Or was she pushing him, or Zeref, to see how far their goodwill would extend? He could force her. He _should._ For her own good. But he wouldn't. "Is Miss Porlyusica available?"

Happy shook his head. "She's gone to the country, for her health. She's scheduled to return before the first snow."

That wouldn't do. They were at an impasse. "I'll just go as I am."

"His Majesty told you specifically—"

"I know what he said, Happy, thank you," Natsu interjected. He lifted his crown and set it down on his head. It was heavy and wanted to slide forward, messing up his combed hair. He would tear it off and throw it if he thought it would help anything. That was misdirected anger, though, and would solve nothing.

He left the room first and headed outside. Happy trailed after him, wringing his hands in worry. There was a procession waiting in the courtyard. Natsu could see five horses and their riders were already at the front gates, waiting for the rest of the party, his brother's smoke-white stallion and Lady Eileen's soot-black mare, and the Captain of the Guard and two men beside them.

"Your horse is here."

It took Natsu a moment to pinpoint the speaker. August sat atop a roan-coloured horse, a staff in one hand, the reins in the other. His robes draped almost as much as his beard. This must have been a very important meeting indeed, if he was joining them, too.

August nodded his head to the left where Natsu's gelding, Tora, was held by the stable boy. The horse was nodding his head disagreeably until he saw Natsu. He settled down and huffed. Natsu petted his nose and got into the saddle. It'd been a bit of a while since he'd taken to leather and he suddenly felt too tired to do it well; it was a good thing it wasn't a very long ride.

Movement drew his eyes west, back towards the castle. Golden light streamed through golden hair. Lucy. She drifted out like a ghost moving through a reality separate of everyone else. She looked strained and exhausted, as well. Everyone was miserable. Natsu waited for that to make him feel better but it didn't.

"What's she doing here?" Happy muttered as he got onto his dark grey pony.

"This delegation will not happen without the presence of the King's healer," August supplied.

Happy's eyes got beady. If he was a sorcerer, Natsu thought Lucy would have already had a thorn in her shoe.

The stable boy brought another mare out of the stalls and held her for Lucy to climb up. She sat side-saddle to accommodate her plentiful skirts. Her eyes flitted to Natsu's briefly and lingered on his bruise. She looked guilty but also resolved. And a little surprised, too, if he guessed correctly. Perhaps like Happy, she thought he should send the guards to collect her as well. He wouldn't be the kind of royal she suspected him to be.

He faced forward and dug his heels into his gelding and set the pace. The gates were already open, his brother thick in the group of guards ahead. Another group was quickly coming to settle around Natsu. He took in every bit of the city he could before he could see nothing but bodies.

The streets outside the castle were mostly quiet, except for a few locals that had gathered to catch a glimpse of the royals as they exited. It was still early. Only the marketplace would be bustling. Natsu waved to the few he could see. A little boy hopped up and down, calling his name. Natsu put away his frustration and made a dragon out of flame that soared through the sky before it burst, tongues of flame flashing through the air and washing them all in heat. The small crowd clapped and cheered. Natsu snuck a peek sideways and saw a ghost of a smile on Lucy's mouth. She smothered it when she caught him looking and faced straight ahead again.

August droned on with the clop of the horses, instructing Natsu on how he should act in the presence of the delegation, like a lifetime of lessons suddenly wasn't good enough. His words floated in and out of Natsu's head. He had better things to occupy himself with. Pondering Lucy's innocence. The curve of light on her lip. What justified evil deeds. The smelted gold of her hair in the sunlight. If her guilt _was_ without question…

_Would he say something_?

There was beauty in silence. _Her_ beauty in silence. Zeref would destroy it if Natsu spoke against her.

Water glittered, an opaque blue crystal under the morning sun. A ship was coming into port. Someone had spent a lot of time recently cleaning up the docks after Lucy's attacks. The boards were bright and new, and there was no debris anywhere. There were armed men and women on every corner, watching for trouble. A boy playing with his dog was shooed from the vicinity with a stern word, and a vagrant that was sleeping off a bender was forcibly removed.

The party fanned out. Two wings of the King's personal guard surrounded Zeref and Lady Eileen. Natsu's party came up behind them and closed the gap between the docks and the city. No one could come through unannounced.

Natsu edged his horse up beside Zeref's, getting between him and Lady Eileen. Lucy took to Zeref's other side. They dismounted. Natsu held his reins loosely and monitored the ship's approach.

Zeref monitored _him._

"Is there something wrong with our healer?" Zeref's voice wasn't at all loud, but it was designed to cut.

Natsu stole another glance at Lucy. Her chin was lifted defiantly. There was a bit of fear in her eyes, though.

"No," Natsu started.

"Then _why_ did you disobey me?"

Happy stumbled getting off his pony. He was clumsy when he was nervous. Natsu was, too. "I thought her magic should be reserved for more important things."

"A suggestion _I_ made, I'm afraid, in case our meeting doesn't go as planned," assuaged a new and surprising voice. Lady Eileen stepped forward, her large sorceress hat blocking out much of the sunlight.

A muscle in Zeref's jaw bulged.

Eileen continued, "It's only a black eye, Your Majesty. A badge of honour, to prove Alvarez's royals train just as hard as their guards. I think it's quite fetching, as a statement. You look fierce, Your Highness." She dared to straighten Natsu's crown. Her eyes grazed past his, mocking, daring, madness.

"Maybe that was wise." Zeref seemed appropriately appeased.

Lucy let out a breath, her shoulders falling. Lady Eileen stepped back in line with Natsu to watch the ship come in, still smiling. He didn't know why she lied for him. Just like he didn't know if he should be grateful. She _was_ going to collect on her favour. Lady Eileen always did.


	15. Chapter 15

The delegation ship came into port with very little fuss, as far as Natsu was concerned, coming to the dock without the usual rigmarole a large ship went through to slow, throwing out its lines, and sidling in carefully with the state of the dock wood in mind. It was almost unnatural, the way it just bobbed to a stop.

A plank dropped onto the deck a moment later. Happy shifted nervously beside Natsu and Lucy wrung her hands before she noticed Natsu looking and clasped them together at her waist.

A man exited the ship first. He was tall, with a large top hat on his head and an ugly green suit that must have passed as the height of fashion in Fiore. His eyes were wrapped with thick, clean bandages. He was blind. But he didn't _move_ like a man that could not see, navigating the plank like he knew just where it ended.

Behind him came another man as tall and wispy as a willow. He had a monocle and unruly hair that stuck up in every direction. Hardly courtier material. Natsu patted down his own hair, hoping the wind didn't muss it up. It was still flat to his head, trapped beneath his crown. Zeref must have been proud.

The next person off the ship was as peculiar as the first two, his hair white _and_ black, like the artist that was working on him ran out of paint. He wasn't dressed as the others but in the traditional garb of the East.

Next was a woman. She smelled like the ocean when the wind blew and her hair glittered like the water. She had a demented little dolly pinned to the base of her throat and lifted an umbrella a dark-haired servant thrust upon her as he, too, exited the boat. Natsu thought she was crazy until a sudden storm cloud gathered and thunder rumbled.

It started to pour.

The streets ran suddenly dirty, the water gushing into the ocean with the force of the torrent. The royal party murmured and scoured for a place to take refuge from the storm, except Zeref. He stayed stagnant, so Natsu did, too.

"Lady Eileen?" said Zeref.

Lady Eileen stepped up and raised her hands and the clouds parted. It was suddenly sunny and warm once more, though Natsu was chilled. He looked at Lucy. She, too, shivered. He unclasped his cloak and rested it on her shoulders without waiting for permission. Lucy looked shocked by his bold display. Natsu refused to flush or stutter or buckle under Lucy's incredulousness _or_ his brother's drab glare. So what if he was a peculiar royal? So what if he was sweet on his brother's healer? So what if she was a terrorist?

He faced the delegation again as another man exited the ship, this one seemingly in charge, judging by the way he carried himself. His long hair was in a topknot and his moustache framed his mouth like a thin worm. He had a cloak with a sigil on it much the same as Natsu, marking him as a member of the royal family, though the insignia was one of a duke. He studied the purple swirls on the black background and scoured through all the houses of Fiore Zeref made him learn when he was young. He couldn't place it, though, which meant this man wasn't even a direct heir. Natsu knew his brother would see that as an insult.

Zeref stepped forward. Natsu joined him, as was expected, his hand held loosely on the pommel of his sword. The duke bowed shallowly to Zeref. "Your Majesty," and almost not at all to Natsu. "Highness."

Zeref was simmering. "Welcome to Alvarez, Duke Porla."

* * *

The sun was sinking over the courtyard. Natsu leaned out of his window, watching it squish against the horizon like an over-ripe persimmon. Courtiers fussed beneath it like ants trying to capture its juices.

His feet longed to feel gravel beneath them but he dug them into his plush carpet and willed them to be satisfied.

Happy moved into the courtyard, munching on an apple and looking to the sky like a dreamer. It was a befitting look for him. He wasn't always present of mind. It'd taken a lot of practice to teach him how to be useful to the prince. Or, that's what Zeref said, at least. Natsu didn't care but apparently making sure his skivvies were ready in the morning was an important task that couldn't be completed when you were dreaming up epic tales.

Lord, he hated being a prince sometimes.

"Happy!" called a girl in a pink dress. She was a maid, sitting on a stone basin that got filled by the rain, unobtrusive and nearly invisible to the nobles that moved around her. She had a pile of laundry she was scrubbing, the tips of her knuckles raw and red from using the washboard and the harsh lye soap.

She smiled when Happy looked at her and she was beautiful.

"I think he's a bit of a cad," Natsu muttered, remembering the stall girl and this girl, and the girl Happy kept sweet on him in the kitchens, _and_ the fisherman's daughter he brought a daisy to every time they were by the docks.

Happy grinned and altered his direction. "Sara." He remembered their names all the time, too. Which women liked, Natsu had been told. His occasional dalliances had only cared that he was a prince. _Including Lucy,_ he thought with an unfamiliar bitter edge.

He wasn't sure what to do with her. He'd tried to follow her into the castle when they'd returned from meeting the delegation, but his brother had been watching and Natsu didn't want him thinking he and Lucy _did_ have some kind of problem. He had shouted at her, "I prefer lemon rinds," like they'd been having a conversation, and then returned to his rooms.

Somewhere, the bell tower struck seven bells and his stomach flopped. He did not want to go to this welcome dinner. He did not want to smile and dance with Fiore's delegation. He did not want to preen and eat until he was fat and laugh at jokes he didn't understand and not say anything humiliating or insulting to Fiore that may incite a war. He wanted to go into the city and dig through its canals like the other canal rats. He wanted to be anonymous.

"Show us your wings, Happy!"

There was a crowd around Happy now, all young women in modest pinafores, showing the signs of some kind of physical labour here or there. They were all comely, though, and seemed infatuated with the street boy-turned servant to the prince.

 _Maybe we can trade places,_ Natsu thought blithely. He'd find a mage that could transform Happy's likeness to Natsu's and vice versa, and Natsu could go live the life of a street urchin and _Happy_ could navigate delegation dinners.

_Lucy wouldn't be interested in an urchin._

And that was the damn problem, wasn't it?

He wanted to scream.

Someone rapped on his door.

"Enter," Natsu called, unable to disguise his glumness.

The door opened. Natsu turned to see his guest and felt his spirits rise and crush, somehow at the same time. "Have I only to think of you to summon you?"

"You were thinking of me?" Lucy was dressed for tonight's dinner in a black dress with a stars-and-moon overskirt. The bodice was laced together with a gold thread that perfectly matched the colour of her pinned hair.

"I always think of you."

"Perhaps, maybe, that's the problem." Lucy closed the door and leaned against it. His cloak was in one hand, a tray in the other. Natsu could smell the tea with lemon.

"You brought me tea?"

She was studying the ground, her rouged lips pressed together lightly. "You asked for it, didn't you?"

"Shouted nonsense at you hours ago, actually," said Natsu. "But in a sense, yes."

She looked up, finally. Gods, she was beautiful. Golden like the sunrise. What rhymed with sunrise? Apple pies? They were golden, too. She was golden like sunrise and apple pies? No. Smelled as well as apple pies? And had a sparkle in her eyes. She pulled him in like the moon pulled the tides, when he looked at her…

"I thought I should deliver it."

"What?"

"Your tea, Your Highness, and your cloak," she reiterated.

"Right." The tea. The cloak. He took the latter from her hands and was reaching for the tea, too. Then he remembered Mard Geer. And Happy's warning of poisoning. He breathed deeply, trying to detect oleander.

"It's safe," she said. "There are no poisons."

"So you admit to poisoning Mard Geer?" He said it gently, as he would to a deer caught in a fence, trying to use soothing tones so she would not get spooked.

Lucy was made of iron, though. She didn't need gentle tones. "He was a big facilitator, trading young girls. It was abominable. I did what I had to do."

Natsu had never liked Mard Geer if he was honest with himself. There was always something not quite right about him. His cunning eyes, his long-fingered hands, the superior sneer on his mouth. Natsu wouldn't be entirely surprised if he _was_ trading young girls. "My brother's people will find evidence of slaving in his home?"

"Perhaps not, if they're entertaining Fiore's delegation at the moment. Any evidence they _do_ find will probably mysteriously go missing and whoever found it will develop a sudden case of tongue-rot."

"You discredit my brother too much." Zeref wouldn't endanger the lives of his people for the sake of impressing their neighbours. Likely.

Lucy's eyes blazed fiercely for an instant, then like she remembered something, she hung her head. "It's possible I owe your brother the benefit of the doubt." She looked up again, furtively beneath her lashes. "And I owe you an apology. I shouldn't have said those things to you. I know now, for certain, that's not the kind of man you are."

That was so unexpected, Natsu could only stare at her.

Lucy continued, "I hope you'll understand, what I'm doing is dangerous, and I thought I'd be dragged from my rooms this morning and hung. But that didn't happen." She reached for his hand and electricity moved through his body. "You kept my secret. For that I'm grateful. Everyone I've saved so far is grateful, as well. We all owe you a huge debt, Crown Prince."

Now seemed like a very bad time to tell her of his suspicions of Lisanna. He didn't know how to broach the subject, or how to deliver the news.

"If I may? By means of apology?" Lucy held up her healer's key.

Natsu touched the corner of his eye, remembering, "Lady Eileen lied for us. Why?"

She shook her head. "I don't know."

Lady Eileen wasn't a very kind woman, not traditionally. There must have been something in it for her. Natsu just couldn't see _what_. "You should probably leave it. She wasn't wrong. Anything could go wrong tonight, you may need all of your magic." And a suddenly healed eye would be more distracting than just meeting the delegation as he was previously.

Lucy hesitated, then stepped forward and touched his eye. Her fingers were cool and soft. Her skin smelled like rosewater. He wanted to turn his head and kiss her wrist and she looked like she wanted to let him.

"I want to be included in your missions."

Lucy's finger stopped fluttering over his brow, pushing his hair back from his forehead. "You want to be part of it?" she repeated as if testing how the words felt in her mouth.

"I'm in too deep now. And if I lend myself to your cause, I can protect you."

"Forgive me, Crown Prince, but you summon fire," Lucy did her best to hide her smile. "You're an elemental mage, that's no match for my battle spirits. I don't need protection from you."

Natsu's pride pricked. "Elemental magic can be as powerful as celestial magic."

"I would only have to summon one spirit to negate your spells, and I have eleven others at my disposal. You've been taught to fight with your sword and entertain with your magic, you're learned roughhousing with your fists, not true fighting, and from what I've heard, there are better swordsmen and women in Alvarez."

"I don't need to be coddled," Natsu responded perhaps too harshly. "I know what's at stake and I can defend myself." And if he couldn't, well, he would go down doing what he loved. Besides, how many water users could there _possibly_ be in Alvarez? "And I can protect you in other ways. If we're caught, Zeref will believe me when I tell him this plotting was my idea. He knows I'm an idealist. He knows I don't approve of the slaving. His judgement of you will be more lenient if he thinks you were coerced." He had no way of knowing if that was true or not but he would fight for it.

"You would do that?"

"Without question."

Lucy studied him for another long moment, measuring his worth. Natsu stood straight for her inspection, his neck hot and his collar feeling too tight.

"I'll need to discuss it," she said at last.

"With who?"

"The others," she evaded.

"Who are the others?"

"You know I can't say."

He wasn't used to being denied. It wasn't a very pleasant feeling, like she'd taken his favourite sweet and held it out of his reach. "What if I ordered it from you?"

"You can be quite intimidating," she said with a playful smile to soften her mocking, "But I'm afraid I'll have to disobey."

Natsu caught himself sulking a millisecond too late. Lucy leaned in slowly, giving him a chance to move away should he want, and kissed his pout away. Natsu coiled his arms around her back to keep her from wiggling away. It wasn't fair that she still felt this good after everything he knew about her. He could at least be a little put off that she'd poisoned one of his brother's council members so coldly but all he could think of was how glad he was that she hadn't been hurt and that she was pruning Alvarez's blight from its branches.

Lucy slid her fingers through his hair and held him close by the collar. He tasted her tongue, she'd been drinking sweet tea. She sighed when he responded to her by touching her waist, like she'd been dying for that little bit of contact, a drug addict stepping into an opium den after weeks away. For the first time, he thought perhaps _he_ had some power over her, too. He followed her spine all the way up into her glorious sheaf of hair and disarrayed her curls. Her breathing intensified. Natsu pushed his hips into hers and her whole body quivered.

Lucy released him to pull at her dress but Natsu stopped her. "Dinner will begin soon." What great restraint, he congratulated himself. What a testament to his will. He could deny Lucy after days of her shying from him.

He had to question who was acting more like an opium lover.

Lucy's annoyance was palpable. But she seemed to enjoy it more when he told her no. She leaned against him, her breasts heaving, two hectic roses on her cheeks. Her lips were still wet from his kiss. Gods, she was beautiful. All that glorious hair and her bottomless eyes, the softness of her, and the cunning core it hid. "Can I see you tonight?"

A responsible prince would tell her no and report her wrongdoings to the correct parties, but if he uttered a word to anyone, she'd be locked away somewhere horrible. Besides, he was still a little singed after Zeref gave the Captain of the Guard position to Silver Fullbuster. He wouldn't put Lucy's fate in his clumsy hands.

"Yes."

Lucy nibbled her bottom lip and ran her fingers around the waist of his pants. He strained into her, hoping she'd go lower. She did, just once, in retribution for his teasing her. He kissed her again for good measure, to feel her mouth and to prolong her contact.

She was the one that ended up pulling away and Natsu knew he'd played his cards too freely once again.

"I'll come to your rooms after," she promised.

"I look forward to it." Natsu fixed her hair for her before she could slide away. The door closed after her and he was alone for an instant. He fell back on his bed, wicking away the wetness at the corners of his mouth and remembering the way Lucy sighed into him. It made up for her assumption that he was useless in a fight _and_ for his inability to prove otherwise.

 _A prince needs some secrets,_ he told himself, but the truth was, Lucy's water spirit had _destroyed_ an entire ship with a few well-timed strikes. He _had_ used his magic primarily for entertainment. Who was to say she wouldn't be more cunning than him in a fight? That anyone else would be, too?

 _That's the fun of it,_ he thought. _If you know you're going to win, what's the point?_ That old, niggling sense of adventure came back for him and swept him up in its tides and he thought perhaps it was better when he was uncertain of himself. It was like a challenge, and he'd never been able to resist one of those.

Happy would _not_ approve.

Happy didn't have to be involved, though. It was better if he wasn't, in fact.

_Gods, are you really going to play spy with Lucy? Are you really going to flush out a slaving ring in Alvarez?_

Yes. And he was going to _love_ every treasonous, rebellious moment of it.

Happy's familiar rap came on Natsu's door.

"Enter," Natsu told his ceiling.

"Are you well?" Happy said upon entry, his words blurring together too fast. "Did she poison you?"

Natsu lifted his head from his bed and found Happy looking as ravished as he felt, the lines maids' fingers made in his hair still visible. "I'm not poisoned, dolt. Close the door."

Happy did as he was told and came further into the room. "I saw her in the hallway. Was she here?"

Using _her_ and _she_ instead of Lucy's name was Happy's way of being discrete, Natsu supposed, but he was the worst liar Natsu had ever met, and that _included_ himself. "Everything is fine. No one's poisoned anyone. We're…" He tried to think of a word to describe him and Lucy. "Co-conspirators now. I support her endeavours." Even if she hadn't agreed to let him yet. She would.

" _Co-conspirators?_ " Happy repeated. "That's—" his voice was reedy and high. He made it so low, Natsu almost didn't hear him. "Treason."

"I'm fighting _for_ my country, Happy, not against it. There's a difference."

"Men with their heads on pikes can't explain the difference to you."

"I won't get my head on a pike. Zeref would exile me first." Probably. That's what happened to _other_ royals that poorly planned espionage and treason. Other royals weren't brother to Zeref, though, whose moods were as unpredictable as summer storms.

Natsu pushed away the latent fear. "Help me dress now and tell me what you discovered."

"I'll be an accomplice."

"You're my _manservant,_ not an accomplice. Help. Me. Dress." It really was getting late.

Happy muttered unfavourably about how _no one_ was going to agree with that distinction, his words as familiar to Natsu as his reflection in the mirror, as he gathered up Natsu's red, black and gold embroidered doublet and shook it out.

"What did the ladies say," Natsu cut into his ramblings. "Don't tell me you just happily let them tousle you without getting any information in return."

Happy rolled his eyes. "Hardly happily." He made his voice high and squeaky. " _Show us your wings, Happy."_ A common request that Happy usually declined until he had a couple of pints of ale in him.

"And you did?" Natsu demanded.

Happy sighed. "You said it was important information, didn't you?"

The cost of doing business was a little bit of humiliation on Happy's part. He'd bounce back from his doll treatment. "Good man. What did you learn about our new friends?"

Happy came close. Natsu sat up so he could hear his report. "They say there were no others on the boat that arrived."

"Just the five of them, and one servant?"

"Yes. They're one of the Fiore king's elite forces. Mages."

Which could explain how they crossed the ocean without a full crew to man their vessel. "Do we know what kind of magic they use?"

He shook his head. "Only that they're powerful."

They must have been if the Fiore king felt comfortable sending only them.

The bell tower chimed half past the hour. He was late. Natsu let Happy help him into his doublet and fuss with his crown, resting it on his head once more. It felt less of a burden, somehow.

"How do I look?"

"Roguish with your bruised eye."

Natsu couldn't help but press at the edge of his eye. It still hurt, obviously. The swelling was less, though. "But handsome?"

"Enough to charm the legs from a spider," Happy huffed dejectedly.

"Let's go to dinner, then, and see if we can make her dance first," Natsu said, thinking of Lucy, thinking of Eileen, thinking of the Fiore delegate he was going to put all of his efforts into beguiling.


	16. Chapter 16

Natsu took the servants hallways to the dining room, knowing it'd be faster than jotting down the halls. He had an affliction. A few, actually. He was chronically late and too many people liked to talk to him. Or he liked to talk to too many people if Zeref was to be believed. Either way, he couldn't risk getting caught in a conversation about the solstice party the commoners were throwing in the city that month that he absolutely, _positively_ , could not attend. Zeref would be putting on an even bigger event and Natsu would be expected to be there, where it was guarded and safe.

A glint of silver caught his attention when he rounded the next corner and he stalled. "Hey!"

Happy, with his shorter legs, ran straight into Natsu and stumbled back. He bounced right back up and wriggled in front of Natsu in the narrow passage, dagger bared, ready—or looking—for trouble. "What is it?"

"Move. There's—someone." With silver hair and narrow shoulders. Natsu tried to push past Happy but Happy was surprisingly strong, maintaining his ground and deftly foiling Natsu's attempts.

"Is there someone here? Show yourself!" Happy's voice was strong and clear. The shift in his demeanor was unsettling; usually, he was meek in front of strangers but here he was, acting the protector. Natsu would have been touched if he wasn't so annoyed.

"Don't just call down the hall. After her!"

"After _who_? I saw no one."

"I thought…" Natsu trailed off when Sorano rounded the corner, an empty washbasin in hand. She startled so bad, she almost dropped it.

"Crown Prince. What are you doing in the servants' corridor?"

Happy went from protective to condescending in the blink of an eye. "His Highness can go where he pleases. This _is_ his castle."

Sorano's lips pursed ever so slightly. "Apologies." She didn't mean it. Natsu didn't care.

"Did you see a girl come through here? With short hair? Silver, like yours."

Understanding came over Happy and he looked at Natsu like he'd gone mad.

"I've seen no one," Sorano said. Natsu couldn't tell if she was lying or not. She could have been holding her chin too high, there could have been a gleam in her eye, the high liars got when they were deceiving you. Or he could have been imagining it all. "Unless, of course, you mean me." She flicked her hair; it glittered in the flickering torchlight. "I did just come through here. I returned for the washbasin."

Natsu sighed, despondent. "Thank you, Sorano. Carry on."

Her eyes narrowed slightly. She didn't like being told what to do. Natsu didn't care about that, either. He sidled past her, getting his doublet caught on the wall. Happy swore and fussed, chasing him and trying to right the fabric on his shoulders. The corridor got quiet and it got darker.

Happy whispered, "Why are you looking for that girl?"

"Because I thought I _saw_ that girl." He'd only met Lisanna a few times but thought her face would be burned into his memory forever. He felt responsible for her. "What if Zeref _didn't_ kill her?"

"But let her roam free in the servants' hallway? Forgive me, Your Highness, but that's ridiculous."

"What if she escaped him?"

" _No one_ escapes His Majesty. She was taken away under guard. She's dead."

"And I'm imagining things."

"Or seeing ghosts." Happy crossed himself though he'd never been religious.

"You're hanging out with those maids too often, getting superstitious."

"And who's fault is that?" Happy muttered under his breath. Louder, he said, "I'd like for her to be alive, too, but I just don't think that's possible. I'm sorry."

Natsu pushed through the exit into the dining hall's corridor. Two guards stood straighter at the door when they saw him and didn't ask why he was crawling through the dusty servants' passages. Happy rushed in front of him and opened the door with grandeur, announcing, "His Royal Highness, Prince Natsu."

Natsu looked over Happy's shoulder. The dining table was full of _Important People_ wearing their best clothes, drinking the Dragneels' best wine. Some he knew, most he didn't, though if he'd gone to any of the meetings Zeref asked him to, he _might_ know them by name.

Natsu was used to garnering attention wherever he roamed. Expected it, even. So when his eighteen minutes of tardiness _didn't_ cause a scene, he knew there was trouble in the air.

Zeref was sitting at the head of the table looking like he'd swallowed something very, very rotten. Everyone was looking at him expectantly, especially the Fiore delegation, while Lucy was posed like she was going to call her healer.

Natsu took his spot beside Lucy, next to Zeref. He thought no one noticed but across the table, Lady Eileen leaned forward in her seat. "Crown Prince." Her eyes were shining as though she _very_ much enjoyed whatever was happening but knew her duty was to diffuse the situation. "Aria was curious about the dragon you met. What was his name again?"

"Igneel," Natsu said as servants rushed to give out their first courses. "The fire dragon."

_Finally,_ Natsu felt all eyes turn to him, but the only ones he cared about were Lucy's. She thought him a useless prince, and while it was _true,_ he'd never seen combat, he'd been trained by battle-hardened soldiers and creatures alike.

"Why don't you tell us about him? Fiore has never been blessed with dragons the way Alvarez has been." Lady Eileen leaned the other way into Duke Porla. Her smile was beguiling but her eyes were as hard as northern ice. "They've shown great favour to our royal family."

Natsu wouldn't quite go _that_ far. In fact, people used to whisper they were cursed until Zeref paid paupers very well to propagate a new rumour—the royals had been blessed that day. The dragons had a higher plan for them, people whispered, that's why the king and queen had been roasted on their hunting trip but the two boys had been saved. They were little cogs in a larger plan.

Igneel, who had _actually_ saved them that day from the tirading dragon, had agreed to aid in Zeref's plan as penance for his uncontrollable kin. He would take Natsu under his wing and teach him all he knew of dragons and dragon slaying magic. They flew over the country, announcing it to anyone that would listen.

With Igneel's help, the Crown Prince and new king went from cursed to blessed overnight. It was not perfect, obviously. Natsu would have preferred if his mother and father were still alive, but Zeref had made sure to take him aside and explain to him that when people appeared weak, others pounced. He was a young king without much experience and people were looking to take away their home. Being bolstered by the dragons—or even the illusion thereof—would help protect them.

For his family, Natsu agreed.

At first, he hated Igneel. Every time he looked into the dragon's alien yellow eyes, he saw the beast that killed his family. He kept at it, though, and eventually, as he learned magic, he came to appreciate that like people, no two dragons were alike.

Lady Eileen cleared her throat, waiting for him to begin. He almost wished she liked speaking just a little bit more, she seemed to have the tale memorized and would probably tell it with better flair than he would—her entire job was to lie and circumnavigate the truth in order to protect the crown. She would never allow Natsu to remain quiet, however. Around Lady Eileen, one must learn to swim on one's own, or be swept up in the tide.

Natsu began his tale at the beginning, long ago, when he was standing in snow up to his thighs, watching his father aim a bow at a large boar. He included everything, the cold shadow that fell over them just after Father loosed his arrow, the way no one could seem to make a sound—even how the blood steamed on top of the snow after the attack. People loved gritty details. It used to hurt to recount it, but he'd told it so many times now, it was almost like it'd happened to someone else.

When he was through, the Fiorians told unbelievable tales of their own, these of beasts that lived in the mountains that could mimic your visage and other ridiculous things.

* * *

Natsu was into his wine cup by the time dinner was finished and the table was cleared. He hadn't eaten as much as he would have normally, afraid of spilling on himself, and was feeling a bit lightheaded. It made his smile come easier, though, as the female Fiore delegate swapped spots with a Natsu's other dinner partner, a man whose name he hadn't bothered to learn, who spoke of nothing but barley grain.

She was beautiful, he thought, standing to greet her, a courtier primped and plumped to catch the eye. Her servant was never very far from her, moving around the table to stand against the wall behind Natsu, where Happy had spent the majority of the night. Natsu wasn't the object of the servant's glare, but he could feel its chill as he took the delegate's hand and raised it to his lips as was expected of him.

"Lady—"

"Juvia," she said with a smile trimmed to the bone. She was a raincloud girl, he decided, like his mother when she was alive, happiest when she wasn't. "Though you'd know that if you were here for the formal introductions."

He wasn't used to people questioning his movements and found that he liked the challenge it posed. It gave him a better measure of this Juvia. She could be a force to reckon with. He liked her immediately, though he thought perhaps he shouldn't if they were going to be on opposing sides of this battle. _Politics,_ Zeref would say. Politics. He would put personal feelings aside for the good of his country. Or he'd die trying to act like he wasn't an impulsive hothead.

Juvia was blinking at him expectantly with eyes as blue as the ocean she'd rode in on. Natsu put on his most diplomatic face. Which wasn't anywhere near as good as Lady Eileen's and a farther cry from Zeref's. "Apologies. I had matters to attend to." He released her hand and restrained himself from looking in Lucy's direction to share a covert smile. He could be discrete, damn it, and he would prove it to her. He was a worthy addition to her cause.

"I suppose you're here now. Perhaps we could spend the evening together to make up for it," Juvia said. Natsu almost spat out his wine until she amended, "Dancing, of course." She cast a look to her servant as she said it.

"Of course." Natsu was sure he was flushing. Were all Fiore women so bold?

Heated whispers from the head of the table drew Natsu out of his mild panic. Zeref and Lady Eileen were talking with their heads close together. Zeref's neck was red and it wasn't from embarrassment. Whatever they'd been speaking of before he arrived apparently still had him riled up. Natsu longed to sidle over and be included in the conversation but he promised himself he'd get close to the Fiore delegation for Lucy's sake and he _would_ do it.

He tried to imagine Juvia as the spider he needed to charm the legs from but she was more akin to a storm. She was dour, through and through, from her sultry, pouty mouth to the slump of her shoulders. Not even her petal-pink dress could spell the illusion of levity. She was a sad girl pretending not to be and it made Natsu weak.

_It's probably a ruse,_ he thought furiously. But he didn't think so.

The chamber orchestra started filing in. Natsu drank warm tea with honey while he waited for them to get set up and asked Juvia about her homeland. She was a Fiore native and had been in service to the Duke Porla, and thusly to the crown for the last ten years. He didn't put her over twenty-three, which meant she'd been the king's since she was thirteen years old.

"Do you usually do peaceful missions? Truces?" Natsu knew it wasn't _proper_ to ask but ask he did because curse his mouth.

Juvia sucked on her lip thoughtfully.

"You don't have to answer that," Natsu retracted after too long in silence.

Juvia conceded, "I go where I'm needed regardless of the nature of the mission or its difficulty."

"Do you have a speciality?"

"Force," she said so simply, it took a while for Natsu to be on alert. He tried to catch her eye to see if she meant them ill but she was looking her servant's way. Natsu followed her gaze to the back wall.

Juvia's servant was dressed as nicely as Happy was, though there was something about the way he held his shoulders back and his chin high that screamed of higher bred society. The look they shared was rich with unspoken words, secrets and enough heat that Natsu felt indecent looking at them.

Juvia turned back to Natsu. She was smiling now, almost blissfully. "We don't mean you any ill will, though. We're Duke Porla's personal guard."

There was movement at the head of the table. Lucy was standing with Zeref and Lady Eileen and was leading them out of the dining hall.

Natsu started to stand to go after them. A hand closed on his shoulder. Silver was there in his Captain of the Guard uniform, pressed and brushed and proper looking. The lines around his eyes looked more pronounced than usual. "Everything is fine. Your brother asked that you carry on. He will return shortly."

"Perhaps we can dance," Juvia pretended that she didn't see Silver at all and Natsu pretended that he didn't see _her_ , asking Silver,

"Does he have his guards with him?"

"Yes, Your Highness." Silver leaned close so he could speak in Natsu's ear. "He wanted to recover from his earlier conversations and requested Lady Lucy fix him a tonic. Lady Eileen is assisting her."

He longed to ask what got Zeref so furious but refused to look ignorant in front of their guests. He nodded once and stood, offering Juvia his hand. She took it with a disinterested look on her face. Most women fawned and batted their eyes prettily, happy to have the attention of the prince. Even Lucy wasn't completely immune to his charm, roguish as it may be. He never cared either way, but it was a notable shift in behaviour. Juvia wasn't like the other girls at court which meant she bore special attention.

* * *

Natsu was mid-way through his second waltz when Zeref returned, as promised. He seemed calmer. His eyes were certainly glassier. Lucy trailed in behind him, her demeanor as cool as a winter's storm when her eyes passed over Natsu and he couldn't decide if it was because of the time she'd spent with his brother or if it was the delegate in his arms. The last was an appealing thought that made him grin wolfishly before he could stop himself. She made him want to throw away all of his propriety and flirt mercilessly.

He deigned to remain focused.

Juvia didn't natter like some people did. It was a chore to get even the most basic information from her. He worked tirelessly and got some gems in amongst the tailings. She was a single child. She was unwed, though Duke Porla had been advocating for her, and she'd been with Duke Porla since the death of her family when she was ten years old. Scarlet Fever took them, she reported, may the gods rest their soul. She came into the service of the king just two years after that. Which meant she was twenty-two, by Natsu's count.

"They say you're a mage," he tried again when the song was coming to an end.

" _They_ say many things."

Now Natsu was confused. "Are you not?"

"I am."

"Do you like to practice?"

"I must, it's part of my duties to my king and country," Juvia said crisply.

The idea of a new sparring partner was an appealing one, he wasn't going to lie, even one as taciturn and cold as Juvia. And if he could practice his magic with her… "You should join me in the western arena tomorrow. We can practice together." What better way to earn someone's trust than beating at them with metaphysical powers?

Juvia pondered his offer for an impolite amount of time. Maybe she was looking for daggers in the dark.

"Nine-thirty," Natsu went on like her probing, eerie stare didn't bother him. "I usually have the place to myself." By request. His magic could get a little out of hand sometimes. He'd once burned August's beard down to a nub. Nothing pissed the old man off quite like that.

"I like to practice before the sunrise," Juvia said finally.

_Before_ the sunrise. An ungodly time he thought no one should ever subject themselves to unless they were on their way to the gallows. But he sensed if he jested now, Juvia would dismiss him and he'd need to find another way to coerce information from her. "I'd like that." Coupled with his most charming smile.

The song ended and Juvia disentangled herself from him. "Forgive me, Your Highness, I'd like to change partners. Perhaps we'll come across each other again this evening."

Her bluntness was staggering. "Of course."

She knew just where she wanted to be when she left his side, going for Silver, who was there as protection but was also ordered to enjoy the party as much as he could so this didn't look and feel like a military operation.

Natsu was again floored by Juvia's boldness as she offered the Captain of the Guard her gloved hand and asked him to dance. Silver agreed and guided her onto the floor.

Natsu spotted Zeref in all the twirling gowns and doublets, sitting on his throne at the front of the room, looking down on all his guests. Lucy was still with him and looking regal, a golden girl in a world burgeoning into the dark as the sun set. Servants rushed around the outer edges of the chambers to light torches in their scones. More dodged through the interior, making sure that the candles they'd lit before dinner were still burning.

A figure appeared out of the crowd of dancers. Lady Eileen had poured herself into a scarlet dress with a scandalous neckline. There were so many rubies sewn into the fabric, he was sure it was the most expensive thing in the castle, _including_ Zeref's jewel-heavy crown.

"Lady Eileen." It would be rude if he didn't offer his hand. She took it without hesitation, giving Natsu the impression that she'd purposefully put herself in his path. The music picked up and they fell into the dance.

"How is your eye, Your Highness?"

Natsu fought the urge to wilt beneath her knowing smile, feeling like a mouse cornered by a cat. "Fine."

"Fine enough you deny your healer when she returns to your room?"

Did Lady Eileen have eyes everywhere? She would make a good spymaster. Natsu looked around before he spoke. They had a small portion of the dancefloor to themselves. He made his voice quiet. "I thought after you lied for us, it was prudent to keep up the ruse."

"Or were you perhaps not doing much talking when our charming healer went to your room?"

Natsu faltered before he could stop himself. Lady Eileen picked up where he left off so they weren't a spectacle, two stagnant people in a room full of dancers. Even Zeref had gotten off his throne and was now dancing with the Fiore delegate. Natsu hoped he was feeling more himself.

"What you do behind closed doors is none of my business, of course, but I would be careful who I knowingly affiliate myself with, Crown Prince," Lady Eileen continued, "Especially in these suspicious times. Your brother finds himself on a wire and turning to… unusual methods to get what he desires."

Natsu felt his heart plummet as he considered what she meant. _You know Zeref struggles sometimes,_ he reminded himself. He was still his brother, though, and it was his duty to mitigate any damages he might have done. Natsu pushed his shoulders back and made his feet catch up with Eileen's. He took the lead again. "Like what?"

"Not here," she decided.

Natsu had never been patient but recognized Eileen wasn't someone to push around. She might turn him into a toad. "Then where?"

"I'll send word." She broke away from him and went in search of a new partner, ending up in Zeref's arms. Natsu stood there for a moment, at a loss, before he spotted a blot of sunshine in the dull room, standing beneath a torch by a table heavy with desserts.

Natsu cut across the room to Lucy, shirking the hands of well-dressed and well-bred ladies. She saw him coming and slunk backwards, into a hallway lined with velvet curtains and three windows and no scones of light. Stars and the moon illuminated her.

Natsu got right close to her, wanting to feel her body heat against him. "Is my brother alright?"

Lucy rested her head back against the wall so she could see him more easily. "I made him a tonic of matcha and gin."

Natsu curled his nose. "That sounds disgusting."

"It was," she agreed. "He's a sight better for it, though."

"You mean drunker." Zeref didn't drink, typically.

"It was either that or have him destroy everyone at his dinner party."

"What did they say to anger him?"

Lucy looked either way down the hall, confirming it was empty. "Duke Porla spoke out of turn and suggested His Majesty marry into the royal family so he would have more influence on Fiore's export."

"That doesn't sound so bad." Informal, for sure, even Natsu knew that. There were political avenues to take and times and places to suggest a coupling like that, like in a formal meeting, in front of a proper audience of advisors to the king.

"The Fiore king has no heir, only bastard children he won't make claim on."

"Then…?"

"He has a ward he's adopted for his own. She's to inherit his kingdom if he and his wife don't have a child."

Though he could see where Zeref may have been insulted, it wasn't _that_ big of a deal. Natsu lifted his shoulder. "He's the king, I suppose, he can name his successors as he wishes. She'd have just as much power as anyone else he named his heir, once the documents were drawn up."

"The king's ward is a child, barely fourteen." Lucy looked at him, flint in her eyes as if daring him to disagree. He wouldn't. He liked to play with fire, not get burned in it.

"Zeref would never agree." Though he'd be within his legal right to do so if the ward had become a woman. Zeref was proud, however, and if that _was—_ honestly—the Fiore King's offer of peace, it was sickeningly weak.

"Some of Zeref's advisors are suggesting otherwise," said Lucy. "He might accept."

She was always looking for ways to criminalize his brother. Natsu shook his head. "You don't know Zeref the way I do."

Lucy looked like she wanted to argue but a lady-in-waiting tried to duck out of the path of a potential suitor and nearly ran into Natsu, who had been all but crushing Lucy to the wall.

The lady flushed the most glorious colour of red and backed out, mumbling apologies.

Lucy swore, her own cheeks red. "The entire court will be whispering about us now."

"They love to gossip." And even went so far as to make it up when the Royals weren't being as interesting as they'd hoped.

Lucy blew her bangs off her forehead. "I need to get back before the rumours can get too out of hand."

Natsu grabbed the rushed fabric at her hip and pulled her back in place. "Or you could stay for a while yet. There will be rumours with or without the deeds to propagate them."

She hesitated, obviously torn. "Your brother…"

"Has Lady Eileen watching him." Or he was sitting down, fuzzy and happily drunk with Silver at his side. Natsu was confident it was one of the two. Or a combination thereof.

Natsu leaned into her more completely, feeling the bones of her corset against his ribs and the light flutter of her chest as she drew in short, quick breaths. Her lips were warm and moist and her tongue soft. Her kiss restrained. He drank her down like laudanum and craved more and more and more.

He still had appearances to keep, though, and pulled back. "I have to return to the party and my date."

Lucy's lip curled. "The delegate?"

"Juvia is her name."

She got even more stormy. Natsu grinned; he couldn't help it. "You're not jealous, are you?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Excellent, because I've been thinking of a poem to woo her all night and I thought maybe you could give me your opinion. Juvia the delegate, your toes are delicate, your cheeks as rosy as a rose. Your eyes are stormy weather and your steps as light as feathers, you're here with me but you'll be gone too soon."

"It's awful," she said immediately, nose curled.

He couldn't help it, he laughed. "You _are_ jealous."

"Or you're just a terrible poet." She pushed at him ineffectually.

Natsu shook his head. "Nah. It can't be that."

"She danced very close to you," Lucy said at last. Her eyes were cast away into the shadows in an attempt to save her pride.

"She's the oddest woman I've ever met," Natsu said truthfully. "Including Brandish. And she may have been dancing closely with me, but she was always looking at her servant."

"I didn't notice."

"Because you were looking at me." He winked and she scowled. He kissed the expression away, tingling from head to foot when Lucy gave in and ran her hands up his shoulders and pressed his mouth close to hers.

"I really do have to go," Lucy said when he was at risk of losing himself to her.

He really had to, too. There was still an uncharmable lady to charm. "I'll leave my door unlocked tonight," Natsu responded.

Lucy slithered away from him. Natsu stayed in the dark, watching the party until he felt he was ready to emerge. Lucy passed by Lady Eileen and whispered something in her ear. Lady Eileen unmistakably looked Natsu's way and grinned. He was once again the mouse backed into the corner. He didn't even remember getting chased.

* * *

 

 


	17. Chapter 17

Despite his best intentions, by the time it was safe enough for Natsu to sneak out of the darkened corner after Lucy, Juvia was nowhere to be found. He searched for her servant, thinking if he found one, he'd find the other, but couldn't locate him, either.

Zeref was dancing with Lady Eileen still but when the music ended, he took himself to the throne that overlooked the room. He spotted Natsu and held his gaze for too long, as though he knew that Natsu had just spent the last ten minutes entangled with his healer and wasn't exceptionally happy of his choice in localities or timing. _Irresponsible_ , Zeref would say. At the time it'd felt fine, but looking around the room at their potential enemies, Natsu found himself agreeing—it _had_ been careless of him.

He sighed and scrubbed his hair before he remembered it was styled. He furiously tried to pat it all back into place.

"Crown Prince."

Natsu turned toward the voice. Lady Brandish was waiting for him. She'd gotten rid of her usual garb and put on a green dress that was handsome and this side of indecent with a neckline that plunged so low, he could see she had not bound herself in a corset.

Brandish held out her hand. Natsu was startled, usually, she didn't partake in these gatherings, but remembered his manners and led her into a dance.

Brandish moved flawlessly, though she looked like she'd rather be anywhere else. Natsu drummed up his courage to say, "Why are we dancing if it's clearly not to your tastes?"

She leaned back so she could see his eyes. "People whisper when a prince and a lady duck into dark places to have private conversations," she retorted.

Natsu felt his neck get hot. "Did my brother send you to scold me?" and disguise it as a dance? How very discrete of him.

"He actually sent me to tell you that the servants' corridors are no place for a prince. We can't protect you there."

For the second time that night, Natsu's steps faltered and his partner took up the slack. "How do you know where I've been?"

She looked at him like he was as dumb as a slug. "There are no secrets in any castle, but this one is exceptionally loose-lipped where her royals are concerned."

"I was late for dinner," Natsu said in his defense.

"You're often late. Endeavour to be less involved with your trysts and perhaps you won't find yourself in trouble." Natsu bristled and Brandish added, "His Majesty's words."

Natsu looked up. Zeref was watching him still, warning in his eyes. There really were no secrets in this castle.

The song ended and Natsu released Brandish. "I'm tired." Which was the truth? It felt like it'd been a very long day.

"I'll let his Majesty know and accompany you back to your rooms," Brandish said.

It was fruitless to argue. Natsu let her speak to Zeref on his behalf, standing in the centre of the ballroom like a daft idiot. He was drawing the attention of the delegation but he didn't care to challenge them. Let them think as they wanted.

Zeref nodded his assent and Brandish returned for him. They left together side-by-side. Natsu walked quickly and Brandish kept pace despite her skirts.

"People don't really whisper all that much, you just shrunk Marin again, didn't you?"

"He's a person," Brandish said.

"He's a spy."

"The _king's_ spy."

It didn't matter _who_ he belonged to, Natsu hated him. He sulked in silence like an adult.

"I won't tell you how to run your affairs," Brandish said as they turned down the next corridor where his room was located. "Just know that Marin isn't the only spy in the castle, and not even the most discrete."

Her words were true enough, Natsu knew, but they were delivered in such a cryptic way, he had to wonder what she meant. He brooded on it long after she left him at his room, pacing his chambers until he felt exhausted and still he did not stop. People spied on him all the time, it was a fact of life in the palace—Brandish knew that too. So why warn him? Who was spying? Did the delegation have people here, inserting themselves into palace life? He'd only seen six people get off the ship but it wasn't like he searched their cargo hold, that was for the guards, and if the guards were as crooked as they'd been recently, there was no telling what was below that ship.

Natsu jumped when the clock tower announced the Witching Hour and again at half-passed. He was really starting to wonder if Lucy was going to show at all when his door creaked open and she entered looking flushed from drink and dance.

She closed the door quietly and then smiled in her disarming way and Brandish's warning went up in smoke.

"Well?" she asked. Even her words were slightly slurred. "Is Juvia madly in love with you?"

"I wasn't aware you were on a first-name basis," Natsu said to distract from his failure.

It seemed Lucy already knew, though. "Shortly after you left, Lady Juvia returned and without you there to keep her company, Lady Eileen thought we might have some things to talk about. Given that we're both of the same age and gender and from the same country." She rolled her eyes to emphasize what she thought of that.

"Did you learn anything?" Natsu asked eagerly.

"She thinks you're a clumsy dancer."

Natsu stuffed down his indigence. "Be serious."

"I am, very. She took off her slipper and showed me the bruise you left on the top of her foot." Lucy was verily shaking with barely-contained laughter.

Natsu caught himself sulking again. "I dance just fine. Come." He held out his hand. She pouted her lips like she'd refuse him just for the sake of it. Natsu decided he wouldn't take no for an answer. He gathered her up by the waist and took her hand and swung her into the dance they never got to have.

The ends of her hair tickled his fingertips in an enticing way and her breath broke across his neck, giving him shivers. They spun around and around to the distant music that could still be heard through the palace's stone walls.

Lucy curled her fingers in his tunic, further clouding his thoughts, getting so close there was no space between them. He could feel her lips brushing his neck. He thought he was in heaven.

Lucy said, "I didn't learn anything worth learning." They did another circle of the room, Lucy's body so close to his, he could feel her lungs pushing the boundaries of her corset. Lucy spoke again, "Unless you count the fact that champagne makes her hiccup. It's quite cute. Perhaps you should write a poem about it."

It was like she was trying a little _too_ hard to be nonchalant. She was lying but he couldn't figure out about _what_. He decided chasing her was only going to make her run further away so he went with it. "How about, Juvia, my love, my sun and moon, you hiccup when you drink champagne too soon." He donned his most crooked grin.

Lucy rolled her eyes again. "Are you even trying anymore?"

"Hard enough to get women in my bedchambers."

She pushed her lips together in displeasure. "Why _do_ women come to your room?"

"I'm the most approachable royal," he jested. "The best looking, the witty one and the most charming." And the least likely to explode and send girls to rot in the dungeons.

That one thought made his bolstering feel like it meant less than nothing. Did people come to him just to push their luck? Because they didn't believe he was really the smiling royal? The level one? Zeref would say it was a ploy to see if they really _should_ be overthrown. Sicknesses ran through families, contaminating the blood like cholera contaminated wells.

_Zeref is the paranoid one._ And with good reason. _That doesn't mean you should start switching roles._ The kingdom couldn't withstand _two_ unstable rulers.

Lucy touched his face and helped pull him from an increasingly dark place. They'd stopped dancing. "What is it?"

"I've never cared about being a prince," Natsu said honestly, "But I do care about Alvarez's people. I'll do what I must to keep them safe. Challenge my brother's edict, go against his wishes." Sometimes, he felt fearless. "As long as we get to the bottom of this, none of the other stuff matters. Zeref will see that, too, when it's all said and done."

She looked at him pityingly, as though he couldn't see the bear trap for the needles on the ground, but Natsu knew differently. Zeref had his episodes and sometimes something wasn't always right in his mind, but at his heart, which was the thing Natsu was most interested in, he _was_ a good person and he _would_ do the right thing, even if it didn't make them look good doing it. He would be Zeref's conscience if need be, but he didn't suspect it would come to that.

"I like that you're so optimistic."

"But I'm a fool?" Natsu added.

"I was just going to stop there." she smiled against his mouth. Her lips parted and he was kissing her again. This time, there was no music and laughter as a background chorus, there was just Lucy and her golden tresses and this infernal bodice she'd squeezed herself into.

Lucy pushed back from him so she could unclip the top of her bodice. Natsu moved behind her to watch her work and then pick up where she'd left off, sliding satin buttons through small satin loops until the material fell from her shoulders and he had her corset to contend with. It was a complex crisscross of delicate ropes but once he pulled out the bow at the bottom, it all started to unravel, revealing pale skin inch by inch.

Natsu touched her back and Lucy shivered and leaned back into him as her corset peeled away. Natsu unhooked the back of her skirts as well and watched them fall so she was only in her frilly smallclothes. Lucy hooked her thumb in those and sent them the same way as her skirts. She turned for him to see her.

There was so much skin in front of him, he wasn't sure where to look first. Every part of her that was supposed to swell did so generously. For a slave, she'd been well-kept and well-fed. "Who were you before all this started?" He looked into her eyes as he asked it, hoping to pin her down and wring the truth from her.

"Who we were before doesn't matter," Lucy looped her arms around his back and found the bottom of his doublet. "It's who we choose to be now that's important."

Who they were before was the foundation to who they were now, though, and if that degraded, they would crumple like buildings left too long to rot in the sun. He could accept she wasn't ready to reveal certain things, though, and let her pull his clothes from his back.

Lucy looked at him in much the same way as he looked at her, drinking in the lines of his body he worked hard to keep visible. Her hands followed her eyes, touching his shoulders and then his chest, his stomach, but skipping right past the part he wanted her to touch most and going to his back.

Shivers followed her trailing fingers until Natsu was cloaked in them. He took Lucy by the hip and pulled her in so their bodies were pressed together and kissed her properly. She lifted her face for his ministrations and turned her neck when he got there, too, allowing him to learn her every inch. He squeezed her behind hard and then her hips. Her sigh turned into a yelp when he pushed her back. She fell but the bed was there to cradle her.

Natsu followed her down, entangling his fingers in her hair like Lucy was the spider web and he the hapless moth. She spread her legs for him but he did not get right between, not yet. He kept one knee planted on the outside of her hip and the other pressed right up against her hot centre so he could feel her reaction when he kissed down her collarbone and then marked the swell of her breast.

Lucy arched into him impatiently, adjusting so he was forced to kiss where she wanted to be kissed. The tip of her breast was already hard and rolled across his tongue, sweet-tasting. She gasped in a breath and squeezed the bedsheets in one hand and Natsu's hair in the other. He turned his kiss into a nibble and followed with a soft suck that made her inch down ever so slightly and rub against his leg. He responded in kind, pushing his hips into hers and listening to her moan again.

Natsu lowered himself down, pressing his body flat against hers. Her puffing breaths tapered off into a small whimper when he circled the bud between her legs with his thumb and pushed inside her with two fingers. She tightened her grip on his hair and spread her legs wider, pushing against his thrusting hand. He looked down at her rosy cheeks and thought, _lovely,_ he thought, _pretender,_ he thought he cared for her, really, truly, and that scared him more than he liked to admit, but Natsu had always been drawn in by fear. He loved the way it made his heart squeeze like two hands clutched around it to choke the life from him. It was a vicious embrace but one he'd come to look forward to.

She arched way back, breasts heaving, fingers tugging his head to her belly. Gone was the gentle healer and here was the girl that circled Bora's rings, collecting money from bets, her glittering beauty the sweet water that would trap the fly.

Natsu watched the line of her body heave from his spot against her sternum. All of her muscles tightened and then she was orgasming. She jittered when it was through, panting and looking up at the ceiling with a dazed glow about her. Natsu wished he could pull back the curtains of her mind and read her thoughts—whatever they were, they looked complex and worrying, not the kind of thoughts a girl had just after climaxing. It was his turn to lay his hand to her cheek and bring her back to the present.

Lucy smiled, her worries evaporating as easy as that. She kissed him much more gently now and invited him between her legs. Natsu obliged, settling at her opening. Lucy raised her hips and took him inside.

They'd been together before but this felt much more intimate. There were no clothes between them, and barely any mendacities. He didn't know how he would keep her. Zeref would never let him marry below his station and he had a duty to his country, one he understood better now than ever before, but he thought he could love Lucy, secrets and all because she was passionate and loved wholly regardless of silly things like titles. Lucy and her lies. Lies he _told_ himself to be wary of but couldn't quite bring himself to be. He didn't think someone so genuine could really be all that bad.

Once they saved his people from being sold as slaves, he'd find a way to have everything.

* * *

The sky looked nearly caustic the next morning, a storm on the horizon that tainted the clouds a lime greeney-yellow. Natsu rolled over, not expecting to see Lucy and unsurprised when he found he was right, she had left him while he was still in the grip of sleep. He imagined a time when she wouldn't have to sneak out of his room as he got ready to meet the delegate for their training match.

The door to his room burst open and Happy tumbled in, rumpled with sleep still caked in the corners of his eyes. He was halfway staggered to the bed when he realized Natsu wasn't in it and twirled around, hunting for him. Happy's eyes slid over him once and then tracked back. Natsu knew before he opened his mouth that he'd gotten into his spirits last night, too. It was hard to say no when it seemed like the entire castle was partaking in the celebrations.

"Your Highness," Happy croaked. Natsu could practically see him singing at the top of his lungs in the middle of the ballroom once the king had pardoned himself and the festivities continued. "You'll be late for your meeting with Lady Juvia."

Natsu raised his brows along with his doublet. Happy noted he was three-quarters of the way dressed and flushed crimson. He would forever be the angel-winged boy they took from the streets no matter how much pomp and posture they perfected. Natsu grinned. He liked Urchin Happy best. He was less of a manservant and more like a partner in crime.

"Are you coming to watch me defend Alvarez's honour?"

"Of course," Happy said immediately.

"Then perhaps wash the sleep from your eyes and belt up your tunic," Natsu suggested. Happy rushed to comply.

Juvia beat them there it seemed by quite a bit. She was well through her stretches, watched by her servant. Her hair was up and reflecting the bourgeoning sun. She'd traded skirts for hose and a well-fitting tunic in the Fiorian style that was so immodest, Natsu found himself adverting his eyes, especially when she stopped and bowed low at the waist.

"Your Highness."

"Lady Juvia."

"I hope you don't mind, I started without you."

"Of course," Natsu said, though he was a little miffed to be late to the party. He joined her inside the cedar fence that blocked the training yard from the rest of the castle grounds. There were wards up around the grounds that August put in place to ensure no damages from the inside of the ring made it to the out. Passing through them was like passing through a waterfall, a wave of coolness and then a feeling like he was damp. It felt like relief knowing that he could let loose in here and not be responsible for any damages to the outside.

"Well, Crown Prince? What shall it be? Hand-to-hand, or metaphysical?"

"I wouldn't want to hurt you," Natsu said, mostly sincere.

"You know, in my country, you're called the ringmaster." Which sounded pretty cool until she finished it off with, "You make pretty illusions to entertain ungrateful children. I'm trained to fight wars. You will not hurt me."

The worst part of what she said wasn't the words but how they were delivered—no scorn, just fact. She believed what she said, wholeheartedly. Natsu couldn't even deny her because it was true in a way. He learned to fight, yes, but Zeref would never put him on the front lines. At least, not until he had another heir.

"Practice as you would with your partners, I guarantee you I will keep up," Juvia concluded.

Natsu stretched out his arms once more, knowing that he should deny her just in case he jeopardized the treaty talks but being totally unable to rationalize bowing to a challenge.

Dimaria did things a certain way and taught Natsu the same tricks. Her first and most important rule was to never show the enemy all your cards upfront. It was a challenging lesson for Natsu to learn, he preferred to go big from the start, pummel his opponent and then start again all before lunchtime. She'd put him in the dirt enough times, however, for him to appreciate her perspective. He knew almost nothing about Juvia or her magic, so he would wait and assess her weaknesses.

Juvia sank into a low crouch. "I'm ready when you are."

Excited nerves made his fingers tingle. He mimicked her, getting low and breathing out all of his nerves. What was left was unadulterated thrill. Fighting with Dimaria was educational but it wasn't very fun.

Juvia made the first move, as fluid as a dancer, crossing the distance between them in less time than it took to blink. She thrust her palm up towards his jaw. Natsu blocked her. she followed through with a palm-thrust to his ribs that he blocked as well. What he couldn't get ahead of was her sweeping kick that took his feet right out from under him. He fell in the grainy sand, getting it in his hair and ears.

Natsu tried a follow-through move Dimaria showed him, kicking Juvia's legs out as well. She fell as he got up. Natsu could hear her servant cursing. What a strange pair they were. He moved forward with the intent of helping her rise. She lifted her hands palm-up and water shot from the earth in a huge geyser.

It hit Natsu with the force of a small tsunami and pushed him back. He hit the cedar fence hard enough to knock the wind out of him. That was when he noticed they had an audience. A collective gasp worked its way around the ring of bystanders, men, women and children of all ages and stations throughout the castle coming to watch their mock battle. Perhaps they were weighing the future of their country on it, or perhaps they just wanted to see if their prince was anything to really whisper about.

Juvia appeared overtop of him, concern in her ocean eyes. "Apologies, Crown Prince. I got carried away."

Natsu pushed back her offered hand and stood on his own, pride stinging. She was a water user. What rare magic, and to come across it _twice_ in the last few weeks? He'd cursed himself with Lucy—or she'd cursed him, he thought. Or Fiore specifically chose people that had the right abilities to nullify his magic.

_Lucy wouldn't do that_. She wasn't all that she seemed, but she wasn't rooted in her country's corruption. She was a victim, like the other people she'd freed. He felt ashamed for the suspicious thought.

Natsu wiped the water from his face and pushed his hair back. He was soggy all the way through.

"Should we stop so you can dry?" There was no smirk on Juvia's lips and no malice in her eyes, flaring Natsu's pride further.

"I'm not afraid of a little water." Torrents, yes, he wouldn't let her know that though.

He hunkered down again, feeling his magic in his blood. He wouldn't hold back this time, damn whatever Dimaria's lessons said. The first way wasn't working.

Juvia raised her brows infuriatingly. Natsu felt the spark inside that would start his fires and summoned it forth. Flames blazed with the heat of a forge, sucking up all the oxygen in the immediate vicinity. Juvia stepped back. Natsu grinned, feral and loving it.

He threw a fireball at her without much regard, figuring she was a good enough mage she _should_ be able to defend against the worst of its heat. It scorched everything in its path, tiny plants that struggled for life in the sand, ants, Juvia's clothes in spots.

Her tunic's hem was charred so badly, he could see her middle, the skin royal white, like the crisp drapes his mother had installed in the library, and the bottom edge of her breast band.

More tittering around the ring. Natsu flushed and started removing his tunic as he stumbled out an apology. Juvia didn't seem to care. She called forward another wall of water that would have knocked him off his feet if he didn't counter it with a breath of flames.

Steam billowed up as fire and water met, clouding the grounds so much, Natsu couldn't see the spectators any longer. He poured on the heat when he felt Juvia pushing back. He was gaining ground, too, until the mist started swirling around him. He realized his mistake too late—he was giving Juvia _more_ ammunition.

The mist encircled him like two living hands, picked him up and threw him back on the ground so hard that the stars he saw behind his eyes were accompanied by encroaching black skies. Juvia appeared before him. She no longer looked sad or gentle or concerned. There was something in her as cold as ice.

"As per your earlier question, usually, Crown Prince," Juvia said in his ear, "I'm deployed when His Majesty is hopeful of peace but is expecting war. We, the Element Four, are his long-reaching sword, and we slice through whatever it is he mean to cut."

Natsu must have struck his head, everything was blurry and he couldn't get a word out. His eyes rolled into the back of his head. Before he was eclipsed completely, he saw a peculiar sight. White-blonde hair and narrow shoulders. Cornflower-coloured eyes. Lisanna slipped into one of the old storage units on the castle grounds and Zeref's shadows slipped after her. He struggled to see beyond that, but then the door closed.

Skirts ruffled and voices rose and his golden girl appeared out of the mist, like a siren calling him to shore. She looked concerned. Natsu wanted to ask her what was wrong but darkness chose that moment to take him.


	18. Chapter 18

Hushed voices squeaking in furious tenor woke Natsu from a foggy sleep. He cracked open his eyes and recognized the craggy infirmary ceiling. He didn't remember moving there.

The voices rose in pitch. Moving his head caused a splitting pain to radiate between Natsu's temples but he persevered and was rewarded. The door was open and beyond it, Lady Juvia was leaning into the Captain of the Guard. Her finger was pointed at his chest and there were two rosy spots on her cheeks. She was furious and Silver was Silver, stoic and as blank as an unused chalkboard.

"We will do as we like _without_ your resistance and you will treat him with _respect_ ," Juvia wrenched out.

"He's a _servant_ ," Silver responded, "What respect is he due?"

"The respect that I, as his master, demand. You will treat him like your son, and you will do it _happily_ or I will have you hung in the sun for two days as penance."

"I'm the captain of the king's guard and you are a delegate visiting from a foreign country Alvarez has poor relations with, Lady Lockser. A delegate that put His Majesty's only heir in jeopardy of losing his brain out the side of his head. A delegate here to beg the prince for forgiveness. You will do well to remember that."

"You heard the healer, he will wake shortly," Juvia responded stiffly.

"Pray he does."

"Or what, Silver? Will I be sentenced to Cthulhu's Palace? Because the Crown Prince was the one that _asked_ for that match. He was the one that assured me he could handle it." She sounded downright petulant now.

" _Captain_ Fullbuster," Silver hissed.

Juvia was silent.

"Say it. Or I will _never_ accept what you've done to my son."

"You'll never accept it anyway."

"I was drawing up invitations for the Mid-Winter festival, Juvia, and made one out to him. Don't make me throw it out."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Why else would I send word for a meeting tonight?" There was tense silence between them, then Silver again said, "Say it."

That seemed to do the trick. "Captain Fullbuster." She sounded docile now. Natsu didn't understand what was happening but he knew he didn't like to hear her like that, not when there was so much fury in her before.

"Thank you, Lady Juvia. You may enter now."

There was a pause that came after his words. Natsu didn't know Juvia well but once the door opened all the way and he saw the way her features were twisted up like someone had hold of her toe and was wrenching it around, he could imagine the things she was holding back with some well-bred manners.

She mostly closed the door again, leaving it open just an inch, before she ever looked at Natsu, her head down and her back bent, like the weight of today was dragging down her shoulders. Natsu felt awkward seeing her in such a vulnerable position and shuffled up on his bed so she knew he was awake. Juvia heard the blankets rustling and straightened her shoulders immediately. She couldn't hide the sadness she pulled around with her, it wasn't that kind of emotion, but she did her best.

"Crown Prince." She bowed at the waist and held it for only a second. Once she'd straightened again, she moved into the room cautiously, as though she was afraid of what he'd do or say. Or of what he'd heard—which was everything but also nothing without any context. Her eyes swept over him once, twice. Her cheeks flushed. Natsu looked down and realized he was without a shirt. He pulled the blankets up a few inches. Juvia asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Like there's a monster in my skull, rattling my brain."

She winced. "Perhaps Alvarez needs to consider a new healer. A better one. I have a few suggestions if you'd like to hear them?"

"I think more likely, the prince should reconsider his matches with delegates that want to kill him."

Juvia's skin whitened. "It wasn't like that, Your Highness. I didn't mean you any ill-will. I just—things got out of hand. I'm terribly competitive and—"

Natsu gave a look around the room, ensuring they were alone before whispering too low for Silver, who still stood at the door, to hear, "I thought you were your king's sword?"

Juvia stopped speaking so quickly and considered her next words with care. "I am a weapon," she said just as quietly.

"So, you admit you mean us ill?" He was outraged.

"A weapon is only that until it's wielded by someone with intent. I hope you will remember that."

Natsu's head spun. "What?"

She continued at a normal volume without explaining herself. "I wanted to formally apologize for my excessive use of force. I hope you can forgive me. And perhaps put a good word in with your brother. He was quite furious. I would hate to see treaty talks evaporate over something so accidental."

Of course, Zeref was mad. He was probably plotting her demise this instant. Natsu was surprised she was still out wandering around, free. Her political standing was likely the only thing that saved her for this long but how much longer would that last? A word from him might be the only thing that saved her life. _Should_ it be saved, though, if she potentially meant them harm?

 _If you do let her die, what would that mean for the slaves, present and future?_ Nothing would ever be resolved. The responsible thing would be to spare her at the risk of himself. He didn't have to wonder if he was selfish enough to condemn her.

"I'll talk to him."

"Thank you." She bowed again, lower this time. "Thank you, Your Highness. It's very gracious of you." She started backing out.

"Wait, is that all?" Natsu said, flabbergasted.

"Yes, I have to go. I'm glad you're feeling better, Your Highness. Again, I am sorry for what happened." Then she slipped out. Natsu was still staring at where she'd been when the door opened again, and Lucy came through.

Today, she wore a rust-coloured dress and had left her hair loose. It was freshly washed and hung mostly limp against her delicate throat. She was wearing a necklace with a key Natsu recognized as celestial. He couldn't place which one it was, though.

Lucy closed the door gently. "I think spirits and fighting improve her disposition," she said it companionably, cracking a smile.

"You aren't surprised to see me awake?" Natsu asked.

Lucy scrunched up her nose. "You had the best healer in Alvarez, why _would_ I be? Besides, it was only a little bump on the head."

Natsu lifted his hand, hunting for it. He found the goose-egg in short order. Little bump his ass. The headache was back to splitting between his temples. He had to close his eyes.

Lucy's cool hands cupped his face and something soothing settled over him. Her magic, yet she hadn't summoned her spirit.

"You're a better mage than you let people believe," he said when he could.

"And you, Crown Prince."

He couldn't keep the grin from his face. "You watched the fight?"

"Until you passed out, yes."

He pushed shame aside. "And you were impressed?"

"For a while, until you passed out," she reiterated.

"Liar. You thought I was great, admit it."

"Undisciplined."

"But strong."

"Stronger than I expected."

"Strong enough to aide your cause."

She looked around the room like he'd pulled her dress from her in public.

"It's just us here."

"People _listen_ ," she whispered. Funny, Brandish said something similar. "When you're feeling better, we'll talk in your room."

"I'm feeling better _now_." He started to rise.

Lucy shook her head and pushed him back onto the cot. "I told your brother he couldn't come to see you until you'd had another healing and two more hours of rest."

The mention of Zeref rattled something loose in Natsu's memory. He had questions for his taciturn brother. "I don't want to sleep yet."

Lucy acted like he hadn't spoken. "We'll meet in your chambers after." She splayed her hands out on his bare chest, pushing the blankets down that he'd cautiously pulled up when Juvia was in the room. His whole body was on fire for her touch, though she barely skimmed his skin. The air glowed around her.

"Ophiuchus," Lucy whispered and Natsu felt the air _pop_. Suddenly, there was another in the room. The healing spirit. Natsu tried to get a good look at her face but the light around her was making everything fuzzy and when her hands joined Lucy's on his skin, he found it difficult to keep his eyes open.

"Rest, prince."

Natsu felt Lucy's lips ghost over his and then he felt nothing.

* * *

The sun was low in the sky when Natsu next opened his eyes. He was alone for the moment. He ran his hand up his chest, feeling the phantom of Lucy's fingers and the residual pulses of her magic on his body. He touched his head. The goose egg was gone. Even his eye felt like it was back to normal. Lucy's magic was incredible.

 _Lucy._ He was supposed to meet her in his chambers.

He threw the blankets off and started to stand. The room spun and he had to sit back down again. The cot squealed in protest.

The door swung open and Zeref stalked through, a storm cloud of a man.

"You shouldn't be standing."

"I feel fine," Natsu protested.

Zeref came right to his side and bent at the waist to examine him. They were so close, Natsu could see his brother had skipped that morning's shave.

"There's no more bruising," Natsu assured him.

"There's bruising," Zeref contradicted.

"Then it doesn't hurt. Everything is fine now."

Zeref's brow came down. "Thankfully. She almost knocked your brain from your head. I'll let you choose the method of punishment."

"I don't want to punish her," Natsu responded immediately. "We were training."

"You _were_ training, then you both were showing off. She meant to hurt you."

"If she really meant to hurt me, I'd suffer worse injuries than a sore skull," Natsu muttered. "She a very powerful mage."

Zeref pinched his cheek between his teeth. "If you won't decide on a punishment, I will."

"No treaty will stand if she's dead."

"We'll make do."

"Zeref—" Natsu tried. "Be reasonable."

"I am. Very. She nearly killed my brother. That's regicide. A crime punishable by death."

"She didn't mean to. And I'm fine. _Please,_ " Natsu begged over Zeref's coming argument. "A lot of innocent people will suffer if we don't at least _try_ to make nice. We need diplomacy now, not force."

Zeref looked at him strangely. "Has August been in to see you?"

"No, why?"

"Because you sound suspiciously like him."

Natsu screwed up his face. "Old?"

"Insightful for once in your life." He crossed his arms and rapped his fingers. "Fine. She won't be hung but she'll go without food for the week."

Even that was too much. "You can't do that, Zeref." He was entirely too informal for a conversation in the infirmary but Natsu couldn't help it. "I was the one that begged her to train with me. We can't punish her for knocking me into a fencepost."

"It was a rock," Zeref drawled.

"Whatever it was. I _asked_ her to. And I'm going to keep asking her to. I want to be a better mage."

Zeref threw his hands in the air. "For what?"

"To protect myself and our people," he responded immediately. "You're always on me to train, so let me train."

"With _our_ people."

"Our people won't push me into a stone," Natsu pointed out. He didn't think even Dimaria was that brazen or careless. "Please. I want this. Our _country_ does, too. You know if we punish Juvia, our treaty talks will mean nothing. We'll be declaring war. I don't want that, and neither do you, right?"

Zeref brought in a huge breath and held it for a moment before releasing it. "Fine."

"Really?" Natsu almost didn't believe him.

"You're not to attack her so disorderly next time. You're to use precise spells and Silver will oversee your matches."

Natsu felt his face split in a grin. "Thank you."

Zeref turned, muttering about stupidity and heirs.

"Wait, Zeref," Natsu called but when Zeref rested his probing stare on him, Natsu didn't know how to continue.

"What is it?"

"I wanted to ask you something," Natsu said.

Zeref rolled his hand to encourage him to speak. "I have a lot of stuff I have to do today so you best get it out there."

"When I was in the ring, I thought I saw something. Something that seems kind of crazy, I know." He paused again.

Zeref cocked one eyebrow. "Speak, Natsu. I don't know what you're trying to say."

"The girl you sentenced to Cthulhu's Palace. Lisanna," he spat out. "I thought I saw Lisanna. And your magic, following her into the storage shed."

Zeref's face was blank. "You're right, that's ridiculous."

Natsu felt his cheeks get hot. "She's not in the dungeon."

"Because she's in a grave," Zeref said at last.

Natsu hunted his brother's face. His jaw was too set, and his fingers were too tight, clenching at his sides. It was the same stance he'd taken when Zeref stole Natsu's toy soldier when they were so small, Natsu remembered crying into his mother's bosom about it. He'd lied about it for a solid two hours until their father checked beneath Zeref's pillow and found it.

"You're lying to me," he said finally. Usually, he wouldn't be so bold as to call his brother a liar, but he was feeling desperate. "I saw her in the servant's passage as well. Did she escape? Are you trying to capture her again?"

"Let it lie, you were hallucinating."

"I know what I saw," Natsu said stubbornly. "If she didn't escape, did you free her. But why? Why would you do that?"

Zeref shook his head and walked out, leaving Natsu to his conspiracy theories and whirling thoughts.

* * *

It was past dinner time when a woman in a nurse's outfit entered the infirmary, waking Natsu from a restless and shallow sleep, and told him he could leave. He still felt a little woozy, but he was starving. He ambled slowly to the kitchen to find the chef had set some dinner aside for him. He thanked the man profusely and ate it in an alcove looking out towards the practice ring.

There were great scores in the earth from his and Juvia's fight. Some of the ground looked like it had been crystalized by heat, and others looked like the dirt had been scrubbed down to the bedrock with water. He'd been ashamed of himself before he'd seen the damage they'd caused but now he was sort of proud. It must have been a spectacle.

Natsu let his gaze lift to the storage shed. What was in there? Anything? Or had he imagined Lisanna, as Zeref suggested?

 _I know what I saw_. If he didn't trust himself, who _could_ he trust?

Natsu was across the grounds before he realized he'd made the decision to do so. The door was unlocked when he tried the handle and swung open on silent hinges. It was a pit of black beyond. What little light did cut through the gloom alit on pointy, shiny objects that made the shed look like a hungry mouth, open, with teeth darkly glittering, waiting to chew him up.

 _Nonsense_ , Natsu thought and let his magic come. The storage shed lit up. Gardening tools looked back at him. They hung from every surface. He looked for girls hiding in the corners but there was nowhere for a person to hide, it was so orderly.

 _There must be_ something. Natsu took a step inside.

"Your Highness."

Natsu tensed. He schooled his face into innocence before turning and meeting the eyes of Warrod Sequen, the gardener. He was ancient, too old to be working the gardens in Natsu's opinion, his skin had the integument of tree bark and his eyes were filmy hazel.

"Do you need something?"

"No, sir," Natsu murmured. "I was just looking."

"Then may I suggest looking elsewhere? This shed is no place for a prince."

Usually, he'd be miffed at being turned away but there was something unsettling about Warrod. He had two moods—serious and dour or laughing goon and Natsu never had any idea which version he was going to get.

"You didn't notice anything weird here before, did you?" Natsu hesitated to ask.

"A prince meddling below his station. Is that what you mean?"

Natsu closed his eyes and shook his head. "Never mind, Mister Sequen. Sorry to bother you."

Warrod stepped aside for Natsu to pass without stammering the usual things people stammered to assure him he wasn't a nuisance. Natsu felt Warrod's eyes on him as he retreated but he refused to look back over his shoulder to glean what he was thinking—he had enough to mull over as it was.

* * *

Though he'd slept for most of the day, shortly after Natsu fell into his bed with a quill in his hand and a piece of parchment with the intent of writing Lucy a _real_ poem befitting of a girl that'd pieced his skull back together, he felt his eyes slip closed and his quill droop. He slept soundly right up to eleven bells, then he heard his door open and felt weight compress his bed next to him. He rolled over. The sleepy smile froze on his face as he took in the hooded figure by candlelight.

He sat up so quickly that his head spun.

"Sh—it's okay." Lucy pushed her hood back so he could see her fully.

" _Assassins_ sneak into princes' rooms with their hoods drawn, Lucy!" Natsu whispered. He patted out an unintentional fire on his bedsheet—his magic had just come without his say so. "I could have hurt you."

She didn't look particularly concerned. "I didn't want to be seen. Or recognized."

"Why? What's going on?"

"My employer agreed to meet you."

The fog cleared in Natsu's mind. "He did?"

She opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head. "Yes. Outside of the castle walls."

His heart fell. "I can't _get_ outside of the castle walls. Even if I could, Zeref has me monitored. He'll know."

Lucy held up the key around her throat. "Let me take care of it."

"How?"

She closed her eyes and glowed in that same golden way that 'd drawn him to her in the first place. The air above her throbbed with power and then two beasts emerged. They were small and blue and buzzed with the same hectic and unfocused energy that bumblebees did. They circled Natsu so quickly, he couldn't really focus on them.

"What the heck are they?"

"Gemini," Lucy said with a smile. "The twins." As if that answered everything, she turned her attention to the spirits. "Can you do it?"

The two stopped. "Of course," said one.

"Should be easy," chimed the other. They came together with a silent clash, then, to Natsu's surprise, he was looking at himself, dressed in the same clothes with the same untidy hair, and the same scar on his cheek.

"What?" He stood and grabbed the other Natsu, looking him over from head to foot.

"Easy," said the new him, "You'll break our concentration."

"How did you do it?" Natsu demanded. "He's perfect."

Natsu—the _other_ Natsu—snorted. "Not perfect. Did you know you have a skintag under your armpit? And a weird birthmark."

"Where?"

"Here." They turned and started to take down their hose. It was surreal watching another version of himself move. Natsu leaned in. He couldn't see his backside very well on his own and was strangely curious about the whole thing.

"That's enough, Gemini," Lucy scolded. "We don't have time for games."

"Yes," fake Natsu said and tightened the tie on their pants again.

"Remember the rules?" Lucy asked Gemini. "Don't leave the room, don't summon room service, try not to talk to anyone unless they talk to you."

"Right." Gemini's voice unsynchronized for a moment so Natsu was hearing the two spirits again. It was eerie.

"Come here." Lucy took Natsu's hand and led him out to the balcony. The night air was cool around them.

"That's amazing magic," Natsu said once they were alone, watching his doppelganger through the sheer curtains. Gemini was picking at a bowl of grapes Happy left in his room that morning. Think of all the things he could do with a second version of him. All the trouble they could get up to, the tricks they could pull, the responsibilities he could deke.

Lucy was studiously focused. "You're to meet my employer at Seven Sterres. Do you know where it is?"

Seven Sterres was a leaky little tavern that invited the roughest crowd. Natsu was practically bouncing out of his skin with eagerness. "Yes."

"Good. When you get out of the castle walls, head east. There's a cairn in the third farmer's field on the North side. You'll find clothes there to disguise yourself."

"Okay," this was exciting and all but still riddled with problems. "But how am I going to get there?" There were twenty guards manning the parameter tonight and they were all on high alert thanks to the delegation and Natsu's tendency to escape.

"Fly."

Fly? "Is Happy meeting me?" If so, where was he?

Lucy shook her head. "Do you trust me?"

"I want to," he said warily.

"Good." Lucy smiled softly and kissed him in her slow and gentle way, that way that made Natsu's thoughts muzzy and his rationality dwindle. She leaned back after a moment and took his hand in hers. She was holding something small and smooth and cool. " _Volant_ ," she whispered.

Natsu felt his world twist and alter almost painfully. He hit the concrete balcony and struggled to right himself. None of his limbs were working in a way he was familiar with, though. Even his vision was all wrong. The sky looked light when a moment ago it'd been moonless, and Lucy, who'd been close enough to see was now fuzzy and out of focus. He opened his mouth to yell and a strange inhuman sound came out.

Lucy bent and scooped him up in her warm hands. "Sh, you'll attract attention. And stop writhing, you'll wreck your feathers."

Natsu quieted until she held him out over the balcony. Then he went back to screeching. He waved his arms only to find he didn't _have_ arms anymore. He had _wings._ With honest to goodness _feathers._

 _Gods,_ he thought. He was an angel boy like Happy now, but his wings weren't white as fresh snow, they were black as coal, and he was not a man. He didn't know _what_ he was.

"To the east," Lucy repeated. "You need to be there before twelve bells." She lifted her hands. Natsu's stomach dropped into his newly clawed feet. She was going to let him go. She was going to drop him into the air.

"Fly," she whispered and let him fall.

 


	19. Chapter 19

Natsu tumbled through the air. He spun once, trying to get himself corrected, and then twice with no success. By then, he had no idea which way was up or down. Until he hit the ground ungracefully. He felt the jolt through his bones as rolled three times to a stop. Then he just lay there for a moment, dazed in the dirt.

Above, Lucy hissed, "Are you okay?" Which seemed silly to Natsu. He had no human voice to answer her. The answer was indefinite, anyway. He couldn't tell if anything was broken because this body was so damned strange, and everything hurt in a cloudy, pulsing way that could have been the dulling after-effects of the transformation or it could have been shock. Once, Dimaria had broken his collarbone and he hadn't even known. It took forty minutes for his body to understand what was happening.

Someone much closer asked, "What was that?"

"Nighthawk, I think," answered someone else.

As Natsu struggled to figure out his feet—his toes were too long and his legs too thin—those two people moved forward to investigate.

"These grounds are filthy with them, Captain."

Captain. Hell.

"But I thought I heard voices."

_Up, get_ up _,_ Natsu thought furiously because those steps were very, very near and he did _not_ want to be caught by Silver. He didn't want Lucy to get caught, either. She was still whispering at him. Maybe she didn't see Silver or maybe she didn't care. Natsu cared, though. Lucy probably didn't know how much of a bastard he could be.

Natsu pushed from the ground with his left wing and wobbled up. The pain stayed a dull twang. It was safe to assume nothing was broken. He concentrated on moving his wings at the same time as he saw other birds do. The air suddenly felt solid, like he could climb through it if he liked. He bowed his knees and then he leapt up in a flurry of feathers, zipping past the face of the approaching man.

Silver took a startled step back, into one of his soldiers. Natsu heard them yell. He glanced back once to make sure his disguise hadn't been seen through. The soldier was helping Silver to his feet and they were both laughing in a relieved way.

He extended his gaze to check on Lucy. She'd retreated further into the shadows. She bit her lip nervously. Natsu thought it made her look pretty, but then she covered her eyes with her hands, panicked. He faced forward seconds before he flew into the castle wall. He pulled sharply upwards and caught the stone in his talons in another ungraceful landing.

"What's wrong with that damned bird?" Natsu heard Silver ask. He'd recovered from his scare and was now glaring at Natsu from across the courtyard. The distance was vast, yet he sounded loud.

"It's a bit demented, I think," answered one of the soldiers with a hostile sneer. "Must have cracked its head when it was wee. We should put it out of its misery, Captain. It's the kind thing to do."

Natsu thought he was joking until he lifted a crossbow and aimed it directly at him. He shrieked a high, piercing squawk and tried flying again. It was easier to do now that he was upright, motivated, and experienced.

His wings caught the air and lifted him high. He moved quickly. _Easily._ And Freely, gliding over the grounds, swooping between trees, and over ponds, leaving the castle far behind him in a matter of seconds. He always knew he loved to fly but this was different. He was at Happy's mercy before. Now? He could go anywhere, do anything. He could fly so high, he could skim through the clouds, or low enough to feel the spray of the ocean.

_But remember, you need to meet Lucy's employer_ before _midnight,_ Natsu reminded himself, and in a rare show of discretion, he found the eastern watchtower and soared toward it, and then beyond. He could move so quickly like this. Walking— _running_ —would never be the same again. He liked moving at breakneck speed in and around tree branches and then skimming above them. He knew he should choose a straight path and go for it, but he couldn't help but play a little—flying felt too good.

He passed over a bridge spanning water, then veered off the main road and went east from memory. When he was small, his family used to visit the nearby farmers. His father liked to have a good relationship with all those that supported the kingdom; he always told Natsu that their loyalty was invaluable. Zeref did things differently—he liked to make them come to him because it was safer. They couldn't be assassinated on the road and killing a king in his own castle was difficult, so Natsu had heard.

He vowed if he ever had the misfortune of becoming king, he would uphold his father's traditions.

The trees gave way to a flat field of wheat, and in the centre of the wheat was a cairn, just as Lucy promised. Natsu started his descent but misjudged the angle he needed to orient himself to the ground. The wind caught him up and then he was barreling down. He tried to pull up, but something was happening to his body. It was changing again. His sleek feathers retracted, his feet became large and bulky, and his eyesight got exponentially worse.

Natsu realized he was a man again seconds before he hit the ground. He had just enough time to twist so he didn't break his neck on impact.

He hit hard, crushing the crop. The shock forced the air out of his lungs. He rolled, cutting his naked body on sharp bits of wheat. One particularly deep gouge was very close to his manhood and stung like fire. When he stopped, he just laid there, dazed and breathless and hurting. It took several moments to get enough air to curse, and even then, it sounded weak and wispy.

Flying was better than landing. For sure. He forgave Happy his roughest touchdowns.

Natsu got to his feet and oriented himself when he could. The cairn was so close, he'd almost landed on it. That would have been a few broken bones.

"Maybe she's trying to kill me?" Natsu mused. "No warning, no instruction. Just, _fly, Natsu._ Like it's so damned easy." He liked that she thought he could do it, though. Hopefully, those first few seconds of change, when he was flopping on the ground trying to figure out what the hell happened, didn't look as terrible as they'd felt.

Natsu limped to the stone cairn and removed the topmost rock. There was a space beyond it. He reached inside and felt fabric. He pulled it out and held it up to the moonlight.

It was a dress with blue forget-me-nots sewn quite expertly into the fabric. It'd look great, on someone smaller. Natsu frowned. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?"

As if in answer, he felt something small, smooth and round in one of the dress's pockets. He pulled it out. It was a stone and tied to it was a piece of paper as rigid as card stock. He tipped it into the moonlight to read the words scrawled on it in tight, neat writing.

_Read me aloud,_ it said, and under it was a single word.

"Feminam."

Natsu felt his skin get hot. He recognized what was happening immediately but couldn't figure out a way to stop it. He only hoped that like his last transformation, this one didn't last.

* * *

Happy folded down one sleeve of Natsu's second-best tunic and hunted for pulled threads. He thought he'd seen one last time the prince had worn this article, but he was having a difficult time finding it now.

"Maybe it was the other one?" he thought aloud and spun on his heel to check Natsu's other belongings. He paused at the door that connected his room to his master's, last-second. It was late. Sometimes, Natsu's routines could be erratic. He'd be up all night and sleep throughout the day, or he'd come back and retire early. He had no idea what to expect, especially now that Natsu had regular company.

Happy curled his nose at the thought of Lucy. Things hadn't been the same since she came to the castle. _Natsu_ hadn't been the same. _Because he's happier now,_ said one part of Happy's brain. _Because he doesn't see she's playing him,_ said another.

He had no proof of her double-cross, but she seemed the kind of tart that _would_. Natsu found her basically in a gutter.

"Exactly where _you_ were found," Happy reminded himself. He didn't like to think of the years he spent on the street before Natsu found him. His memories were spotty anyway. What he _did_ recall with perfect clarity weren't the kinds of things people wanted to take with them. It was amazing the lengths a person would go to when they were seven days hungry and winter cold.

Before Happy could touch the door, it disappeared in front of him and Natsu was standing in its place. He was wearing much the same as he'd been wearing earlier that night, except he'd put on his royal crown and had undone his shirt halfway. And his feet were bare.

Natsu scrunched up his face in concentration. "Happy?"

"Have you forgotten your manservant, Your Highness?" Happy asked, a little bemused, a little miffed. He didn't know what he'd do if he didn't have Natsu. He couldn't go back to the street.

"Manservant," Natsu tested the word as if he'd never heard it before.

"For eleven years," Happy said. "Are you feeling well?"

Natsu ignored the question. "So, you do as I say?"

"Amongst other things, yes." Happy lifted his hand to feel Natsu's forehead but his skin was cool. He wasn't feverish. "Have you been drinking?" He didn't _smell_ the alcohol on Natsu's breath, though he did look pink-cheeked.

"Is that what you do for fun?"

"That's what most everyone does for fun," Happy said.

"I want to do that, then," Natsu announced. Then he thought about it. "Here, though. I'm not supposed to leave."

"Zeref was furious last time," Happy agreed. He'd deked the king's outburst but when he saw him in the hallway that morning, Zeref had glowered at Happy like he'd never been glowered at before. It was disconcerting.

"So, what do you say then?"

"His Majesty's arranged your day tomorrow—you start early with the delegation," Happy started.

"That's then, this is now," Natsu tilted his mouth into a mischievous snarl Happy wasn't entirely familiar with.

"Your Highness…"

"I'm _bored_. And no one said I couldn't do anything about _that._ "

There was an otherworldly glow in Natsu's eyes. Happy scrutinized him carefully. "Did you go into Miss Porlyusica's herb garden again?" The last time that'd happened, Natsu ate Miss Porlyusica's sedative plants and at first, he'd been happy and laughing at everything and nothing while he looked at the stars, and then he'd fallen asleep so fast that Happy had to drag him from his balcony to his bed.

"I can't go outside, remember, Hoppy?"

"Happy."

Natsu just looked at him, not understanding. Happy sighed. "Are you ordering me to entertain you?"

"Should I? _Could_ I?" Natsu snapped his fingers. "Of course." He looked at Happy, suddenly very formal. "I order you to bring fun here."

"You're acting very oddly."

" _Fun_ ," Natsu demanded again. "I'm _bored._ "

Happy relented. "Very well, Your Highness."

* * *

Dresses—at least _these_ kinds of dresses, loose-fitting and long—were comfortable. And easy. Natsu didn't even _have_ to wear anything underneath. Which might have been painfully obvious, but he wasn't particularly well endowed. At least, not compared to some of the ladies he'd seen.

He stomped through the city with purpose, his head held high and his backbone straight, though none of his movements were coordinated. His limbs didn't fit him right. He garnered a few peculiar looks, but he was buzzing with so much energy, he couldn't pay them any mind.

Seven Sterres came out of the gloom, looking seedy and rough and held together with a few bent nails. It was alive with bodies. Music creeped out of cracks in the aged wood. Adrenaline throbbed through Natsu. He reminded himself to breathe deeply and calmly. He needed to keep his cool and _not_ worry about how he was going to know which person in the room was Lucy's employer. He still had fifteen minutes to midnight. He was early. For once in his life.

Natsu pushed open the heavy wooden door and was blasted by the scent of alcohol, old and new, and the sound of music and laughter. The place was full past capacity.

In between swaying bodies, Natsu spied the stage. A man with seven years of scruff on his face sat atop it with a banjo in his hand. He must have been large because every time he stomped his leather-bound foot, Natsu heard it over the clapping and laughter and yelling.

A young woman flounced by, comely with her long, dark hair, and grinning. She grabbed Natsu's hand and pulled him out onto the floor where someone had cleared a spot for dancing. Natsu didn't even try to resist—life was about fun, after all. He spun in circles with her, caught up for a moment in the sheer velocity of the pub.

The music got faster and so did the dance, round and round they went until Natsu spun away from the girl and into the arms of another—one harrier, stinkier and stronger.

"Sorry!" Natsu said over the din and turned away. He didn't get far, pulled back again into the man. He was rancid and had something sticky in his beard.

"Let me buy you a drink."

Natsu shrugged. "Sure. A drink sounds good." He _was_ thirsty.

The man grinned and waved him to the bar. Natsu was halfway there when the colour of spilled blood caught his eye. He froze in his tracks and narrowed in on Lady Eileen. She was sitting at a table with a pint of something amber in her hands. She was looking directly at him. Natsu smoothed his dress and then his hair. It was a lot longer than his usual messy locks and smooth. And that was only the beginnings of his change. He didn't even have anything between his legs. He was, in every way possible, a woman. He'd checked. There was no way she recognized him.

Except, her glower only got more pronounced.

_She's the enchantress_. Her very job was to see through enchantments. And she was glaring right through his. "Hell."

He spun away from the man, toward the door. One step in and he felt his body get rigid as if it'd been left in icy water for hours. He turned back around. The man was still talking to him but Natsu couldn't hear what he was saying, there was a riot of noise in his head as his body disobeyed his commands and walked him to Eileen's table. His knees bent and dropped him into the seat across from her.

"You make an ugly woman," Eileen greeted. "But good for you for learning quickly what you lack in glamour you can make up for with open knees."

Natsu played the ignorant card. "I don't know what you're talking about. My date's waiting for me and—"

Eileen's expression got darker. "Enough, Natsu." Not Prince, not Your Highness. Just Natsu. She didn't even try to lower her voice so no one could hear her. Natsu did not follow her lead and dropped his voice to the lowest whisper he could manage and still be heard.

"Please, don't tell Zeref. I only wanted to have a little bit of fun. It's boring in the castle all the time."

"I'm sure it is."

"I promise I'll go straight back," Natsu added, thinking for a moment that she'd let that happen. "I know how to get in undetected—" a lie. "And I won't ever try to sneak out like this again." An even bigger lie. He'd pocketed that stone and planned on using it right up until the magic ran out.

Eileen sipped her ale calmly. "I hear you want to make yourself useful to our Lady Lucy."

Anything else Natsu was planning to say soared out of his mind. He looked at Eileen and she looked at him and his mind was just _blank_.

"Well?"

"Lady Lucy and I don't speak that often," was the only thing he could think to say. "But I'm indebted to her for her many healings."

Eileen sat back and closed her eyes. "This is going to be a _very_ long meeting if you keep pretending to be dense." She peeked at him through her lashes. "Or are you just naturally thick-headed?"

"You can't call me stupid," Natsu said in an indignant tone.

"I can and I did. The question is if it's true. Were you coercing her into your bed with that sweet talk or were you trying to gather evidence of treason for your brother?"

"Lucy isn't committing treason," Natsu said firmly. "She's doing the right thing."

Lady Eileen lifted one sharp eyebrow. "Is that so?"

Natsu clamped his teeth together so hard, he feared they'd break. "You forced me to say that. Magicked it out of me." Zeref would believe him. He had to. He was his brother.

Eileen sat forward, blade-sharp and ready to draw blood. "Relax. I'm not looking to set you up. I'm trying to see how useful you'll be to our cause."

Natsu felt like he was frozen all over again. "Your cause."

"That's right."

" _You're_ Lucy's employer?"

Lady Eileen held out her hands. "In all my glory."

"You're the one funding the attacks? Mard Geer? Jacob?" he dropped his voice even lower. "The docks?"

"Yes. Yes. Yes. And, yes."

That's why Lucy was always with Lady Eileen? Not because Lady Eileen was unwell, but because they'd been planning espionage. "Why? I thought you were loyal to Zeref?"

"It's personal," Lady Eileen said.

"Then why involve Lucy? Why agree to meet me? Is it because I know too much? Do you plan on doing away with me? I'll fight." And he wouldn't go down easily. His stomach fluttered with excited nerves. Lady Eileen was terrifying without ever doing much. What he wouldn't give to test the extent of her power. _At the cost of your life?_ asked the minute, reasonable voice in his head. Natsu tamped it. He didn't need that kind of negativity in his life.

Eileen looked completely unimpressed. "If that was my goal, we wouldn't be talking." And he believed her.

"What do you want, then?"

"The help of someone with your level of influence."

Natsu pinched his eyebrows together. "You're the _enchantress_. You're my brother's right hand. You have almost as much influence as I do." More, depending on who you asked.

"All of those things are true, but I can't order an arrest without a royal seal of approval, can I? Nor can I command the guard to go anywhere. Either my blood needs to be royal or I should have a nuisance between my legs."

Natsu's thoughts whirled _more._ "You want to command the guard?"

"If it weren't for Silver's annoying presence, that position would have gone to me."

"You wanted to be _Captain of the guard_?" he corrected. "But you didn't even compete."

She drummed her fingers on the table. Her claws had always been a source of anxiety for Natsu. They'd snuck their way into his worst nightmares a time or two and shredded him apart.

"As your brother is so fond of saying, we all have our strengths and mine, apparently, is casting magic, _not_ commanding troops."

"So, you need me," Natsu reiterated experimentally.

"Gods' sake. Haven't we already covered this part of the conversation? Do you have memory loss after you cracked your head open?"

It was Natsu's turn to scowl. "It's just a lot to digest."

She waited just long enough to take a drink. "Has it settled now? Can we move on?"

Natsu shook out his hands. He could feel his disguise thinning like it was getting ready to peel back. He wondered how much time he had before he was sitting in a pub in a dress too small for his usual body. What a story that would be. Zeref would be humiliated. "Okay."

"What I need you to do is order the guard to raid this man's home." She slid a piece of paper across the table with a name and address. Natsu recognized both.

"He's a Duke." Highborn and close to the Fiore throne, but living part-time in Alvarez.

"Can you do it or _not_?"

"Zeref doesn't approve of it."

"If he did, I wouldn't be sitting here with the royal of lesser influence."

Natsu mostly ignored the jibe. "So, you've already tried to order it?"

"Do I look stupid?" Eileen snapped. "Of course not. As soon as I realized he wouldn't make any gutsy moves I decided to play my hand closer to my chest."

It was Natsu's turn to drum his fingers against the table. "What am I looking for?"

"Evidence of slavery. Notes. The girls themselves." She looked desperate. Lady Eileen _never_ looked desperate.

"If I'm caught…"

"You'll get a slap on the wrist for going against your brother's wishes."

"Or—"

She shook her head. "That's _all._ "

"You can't know that."

"You're his only heir."

Which is the exact same thing he'd been telling Happy all this time. It sounded more reckless coming from someone else. "What if I pitch the idea to him? Tell him I got a tip from…"

"Yes?"

He didn't know. "I'll work on a story."

"I don't have time for you to _work on a story._ We need to act."

"What if it backfires?"

"Beg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission," Eileen said. "This is your kingdom, too, Your Highness."

It _was_ also his kingdom and it was his duty to protect it.

"And," she said casually. "I seem to recall a prince owing me a great favour."

"For _what?_ "

"For a lie I told on the docks, waiting for the Fiore delegation to arrive, I believe," she said. "And for not telling Zeref his newest healer likes to slip maladies into wines, or that she's destroyed a disgusting amount of royal property in her hunt for justice."

"She did all of that on _your_ orders."

"Says the irresponsible prince blindly in love."

She had him trapped and Lucy all but hung. A word this way or that and both him and Lucy were damned. "Fine. I'll do it."

Eileen didn't even miss a beat, as though she'd never expected any less from him. "You're to move as soon as the sun rises."

"What about Silver? He's not just going to let me take control of the guard."

"I'll take care of him."

"The way Mard Geer was taken care of?" He wouldn't do it if people were going to die.

"As of this moment, Silver is an annoyance, not a threat," Eileen eased. "I'll incapacitate him."

"And Zeref?"

Eileen's smile grew. "Sorano tells me he's having a long evening and will be too exhausted to rise in the morning."

Natsu looked at Eileen with new respect. She had her fingers in all the pies, manipulating people left and right, operating behind the scenes until she saw fit to be seen.

His disguise pulled at his fingertips. Natsu watched his nails turn from clear and clean and long to short and a little dirty after falling in the field.

"Do we have a deal?"

"Yes," he said, distracted.

"Good. The North Gate is guarded by Haine and Juliet. They'll let you inside the castle." She waved for him to stand. Natsu's disguise pulled sharply. He wasn't going to make it back either way, no matter how fast he ran.

"I have no other clothes. I can't return to the castle in a dress." He'd be the laughingstock.

Her eyes got mean and her smile turned bright. "I suggest hurrying, then."

Natsu felt his shoulders widen and press against the dress. He saw no room for mercy in Eileen's gaze. He turned sharply from the table and raced from the pub.

There were people outside that looked at him peculiarly, but they must have seen enough people sprinting from the pub to the gutter not to question his mad dash.

Natsu stuck to the shadows, slowing periodically when his disguise would pull at his skin. It was painful to grow back to his original size, his bones realigning. More painful than it had been to shrink. He was sweaty and felt sick. After a moment, it would pass, and he could run again.

The jig was totally up by the time he reached the outskirts of the city and could see the castle walls. He was completely himself, in a dress three sizes too small and shredded. It didn't hide much. He pulled the fabric down in the front to cover his most important bits and felt it rise in the back. There was no way to win completely.

"Doesn't matter," Natsu pep talked himself. "Just walk up to the gate like it's natural and it _will_ be."

He stepped out of the shadows and faced the North Gate. Just as Eileen promised, Haine and Juliet stood guard. They both spotted him at the same time. Their stoic faces cracked and then they were snickering quietly into their sleeves. Natsu felt his cheeks warm. He didn't even say anything to them—what was there _to_ say?—he walked by with authority, through the gate and into the castle grounds. Now he just needed to get into his room without being spotted.

The way was suspiciously clear. He stuck by the horse barn and ran fast enough that hopefully, anyone looking into the courtyard wouldn't be able to identify him. He wouldn't be the first person to run through the castle grounds naked, not by a long shot. He'd be the first royal, though, he'd bet. The thought of Zeref doing anything so frivolously reckless made him laugh.

Servants' entrances were littered all over the castle and Natsu had them memorized by the time he was thirteen. The least-used ones at this time were the ones the Ferrier and tack boy claimed as their own. Natsu dashed for the heavy wooden door and into the relative safety of the castle. His relief would be short-lived, he knew, the castle was lousy with people even at this time of night, but there was something relieving about being under a roof when you were mostly naked. No bugs. No bats. No bears in here.

He stuck to the servants' passageways as much as possible, on the lookout for sleepy servants finishing their nightly chores. More than once, he had to steal out into the main hallway and pray that a passing servant didn't decide to detour there.

Things were going well until he reached the hallways near the armoury. Then he felt eyes on him. It was an uncomfortable prick between his shoulder blades. He didn't have his confirmation until he passed a small alcove and heard snickering, high and thready and small. There was only one spy that could hide in a narrow hallway without nooks like this and go undetected.

Natsu didn't think of the consequences as he balled his fist together and called his fire. He sent it down the hallway, charring everything it touched.

The laughter turned to a high-pitched scream. Natsu let it go on for another second, hoping that he'd drive into Marin's head that he did _not_ like to be spied upon, then he called all the fire back to himself and continued.

He came to a part of the halls where the servants' hallways ejected him out into the living quarters. He had to exit. He took in a deep breath, knowing he was about to put on a show for everyone stationed near the royals' rooms, and stepped out with his head held high, to an audience of six guards.

All eyes moved to him. The men were mostly professional about it. It was the sole woman that met Natsu's eyes unflinchingly. Dimaria mouth curled into a wicked smile. She took in every visible inch of him. Natsu pulled the dress down further and felt the fabric let go in one long, agonized sigh. She never broke her post to mock him, but her relentless gaze was worse, somehow. Natsu started to sprint. The more he moved, the more he felt the dress tear. Soon, it was held on by a thread in the back and falling down his arms. His chest, back and buttocks were out and the only reason his front was covered at all was that he held the dress firmly in place.

Natsu passed Zeref's rooms without incident and thought he was home free, but then he heard boots on stone. There was a sharp corner in the hallway, and he was already curling around it at breakneck speed. There was no stopping.

He collided ungracefully with a tall and solid man. The man swore and stumbled back into the wall. With renewed panic, Natsu fled past him toward the next servants' hallway just feet away. He struggled with the door handle and almost cheered when it came unlatched.

"Halt!" came a commanding voice.

Natsu intended on going anyway but his feet froze to the ground and he couldn't move an inch. The man got to his feet and fixed his glasses. His eyes were hard and slit.

"State your…" his voice trailed off and his eyes turned wide. "Crown Prince."

Cringing, Natsu looked at stuffy, proper Invel. "It's not how it seems."

"I'm not sure how it seems." Invel stumbled more. His neck was red well down into his collar. "I mean, I didn't think it seemed any way."

Natsu looked down at his mostly naked body, tousled hair, shorn dress and raised his eyebrow. He wasn't sure how it seemed, either. "Can I?" he nodded to his feet.

"Yes. Yes, of course." The ice disappeared. Natsu's toes were painfully numb. While he stretched them, Invel drew himself up and fell into his old, stiff self. "You shouldn't be wandering without your guard. I'll escort you to your quarters. This way."

"I was just going to—" Natsu pointed to the servants' hallways. He was so close, now that he'd crossed the hall. He could get in and get to Happy's rooms, and then his own. No fuss.

Invel's eyes got hard. "This way." He wouldn't take no for an answer. Natsu sighed and fell into step behind him. His feet _hurt_ to walk on. That ice had been so cold.

Invel let Natsu trail slightly behind while he led the way with his hand on his sword. He didn't try to ask questions, for which Natsu was grateful. He didn't have a good explanation for his state.

One of the doors opened and a woman leaned into the hallway. Her hair was a cascade of blue, glinting like the ocean's surface beneath the candlelight. "Mister Invel, I thought I heard a commotion—" Her eyes moved from Invel to Natsu and her words dropped away completely.

Natsu would have laughed at the stunned look on Juvia's face if he didn't _finally_ feel truly embarrassed. She stared at him for an inappropriate amount of time, obviously mortified but unable to move. Natsu passed her, eyes forward like Invel, pretending that nothing was wrong.

Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, he heard laughter coming from his chambers.

The door opened and a noble lady tumbled out, almost as indecently dressed as Natsu. She pulled along a fourth-year squire, too busy laughing and whispering and stealing into shadows to care.

Invel stopped at the door and looked in with the same level of horror as Juvia had. Natsu looked over his shoulder. There were bodies draped across every surface and the air stunk of ale.

Happy was front and centre, teetering on a chair. There was a horn of ale in his hand and some high-born sons of lords were gathered around. They encouraged him to drink with fervour and he was happy to oblige. Beer splashed down Happy's bare chest and his wings, out for display and twitched on his back. Girls in long, bejewelled dresses either clapped for him or skimmed his pearl-bright feathers with their fingertips like they were caught in the throes of a laudanum high.

Happy emptied his glass and took it away with a dramatic 'Ah!"

He looked around the room proudly, soaking in the cheers. His wide smile fell when his eyes skimmed over the door and took in Natsu and Invel. The room got gradually quieter as people followed Happy's gaze.

"Sir Invel."

"Where are His Highness' guards?" Invel asked.

Happy blinked blankly.

"I sent them away," Natsu improvised. "They were getting in our way."

Invel's eye twitched. He faced Natsu and made his voice low so no one could hear him. "Your brother will hear of this."

"Invel…"

"I _have_ to report it. They're not to leave, even on your orders."

"They were sick," said Natsu.

"You just told me you sent them away."

"I forgot."

Invel shook his head.

" _Please,_ Invel. At least let me talk to Zeref first." Maybe he could soften the blow?

Invel held his eyes.

Happy cleared his throat, distracting the guests from the spectacle. "Our prince looks like he's imbibed adequately, wouldn't you say? It's time to leave, I think."

People filed out quietly, still smiling and laughing to themselves, but much more subdued now. When the last person exited, Invel said, "I'll send in a maid. Or a team of them. The most discrete I can manage."

Natsu sighed. "Thank you."

Invel turned on his heel and left. Happy climbed down from the chair. Natsu admired the destruction from the party he hadn't participated in, awed by the sheer force of it. Everything was a mess and stunk of ale and sharper things. This was _not_ what he imagined Lucy had in mind when she said she'd take care of his alibi. Effective, though, if everyone thought he was here throwing a wild party, how could he be in the city planning espionage?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'VE MISSED YOU!
> 
> First, I want to say a happy thank you to everyone reading. I love you thiiiiiiiiiis much. Second is a shameless plug. My book is available for pre-order on Amazon. The Reformation of Linnea Hail by Kaitlin Corvus. She releases on the 21st of September. I would love it if you looked at it ;)
> 
> Okay. Bye for now <3


	20. Chapter 20

The bath in the guest chambers across from Natsu's—his temporary sanctuary until the maids were done in his room—wasn't nearly as large as his. He squelched his body across the copper, slopping water over its edge just as Happy angled sideways and came into the room. His wings were still out, wide and white, and his cheeks were just as rosy as they'd been when he stood on the chair, showing off to Natsu's peers.

"Looks difficult, moving around like that."

Happy hung his head. "I can't get them to listen, Your Highness." He flicked a feather dispassionately. "They're stuck until they feel like going away. Miss Porlyusica told me once it was because I didn't use them much."

Not stuck in the castle, where he pretended he was just like everyone else. Natsu felt a momentary pang for Happy. It dissolved beneath the memory of maidens skimming his feathers. Poor soul.

"Do you think we'll be in trouble tomorrow?" Happy asked suddenly.

"Nah," Natsu responded with the same abandon as he usually did, but this time, he didn't feel it with any certainty. He wasn't concerned about the party, though. Not when there was a raid on a duke's home he'd promised to excise.

Natsu stood and Happy scrabbled a towel off the counter for him. Natsu was saved Happy's fumbling ministrations when someone tapped on the outer door.

"Who could that be at this hour?" Happy murmured. But Natsu knew. He hurried and threw on the robe he'd saved from his room and followed Happy to the door. He was still damp.

Happy stood in front of Natsu, wings blocking his view, and wouldn't move as he opened the door and looked out into the hallway, but Natsu could smell Lucy, she always used the same delicate oils on her skin.

"It's late and this is very improper." The back of Happy's neck was slowly turning red. Natsu almost pushed him aside so he could see Lucy and whatever it was that was making drunk Happy blush.

"I think that's the point," Lucy said.

Natsu did push Happy now. "Leave, Happy."

Happy's shoulders tensed like he was going to deny Natsu, but last minute, he sighed and moved around Lucy and her thin, clinging nightdress, barely covered by a robe, into the hallway.

Lucy rustled her skirts and shut the door, barring Natsu's view of Happy, and effectively stemming his guilt. She fit against him like a puzzle piece and lifted her hand and brushed his cheek.

"Finally. You took so long coming back. And you're cut up."

"I crashed in a field," Natsu told her in his best attempt at being firm. The battle was in its death throes, though it'd barely begun. Her fingers were smooth on his cheekbones, and then in his hair, pushing back the locks and examining him for injuries. She pulled him down; Natsu felt his eyes fluttering closed.

"You don't make a very graceful bird."

"Or a beautiful woman, according to your employer."

Lucy kissed the corner of his mouth. "She can be wicked. I'm sure it wasn't all that bad."

"Bad enough. Especially when I had no idea what to expect."

She'd been working up to sealing her mouth over his but stopped when she heard the displeasure in his voice and leaned back. Somehow, Natsu had locked his arms around her waist, making it so she couldn't get very far away. "I couldn't give you any warning."

"I needed to walk through the castle in a shredded gown too small for my body."

Lucy was almost as wicked as she accused Lady Eileen of being, hiding her smile behind her hand. "I'm sorry, Natsu. That was her idea. The girl. You weren't supposed to be out long enough for the glamour to dissipate"

"When word gets back to my brother—"

"He'll think you imbibed too much the night before, thanks to Gemini."

"My reputation will never survive," Natsu said, thinking of the Natsu mimic Lucy had summoned and the party raging in his chambers.

"It's not the way I would have preferred to do things," she admitted. "I wanted Gemini to stay quiet and out of trouble, but… I suppose I wasn't specific about bringing trouble to them. They love loopholes."

Natsu didn't care about that, in his opinion, all plans were made to be broken and the faster people came to accept that, the happier the world would be. What he cared about was the fallout in the morning. He'd like to have a word with this Natsu imposter. Maybe he could send him in his place so he could deke the scolding. "Where is he now?"

"They're back in the spirit realm in their own form," Lucy said warily.

"Summon them again."

She leaned into him once more, soothing his anger. "Everything worked out well. This was just the story we needed to excuse you returning to the castle in such a state."

Natsu shook his head. "What we needed was to not have a story, to begin with. Lady Eil—"

Lucy clapped her hand over his mouth and shook her head fiercely. "Nowhere is safe to speak so openly," she said when she was sure he wasn't about to spoil everything.

Natsu wriggled out from beneath her hand and said more quietly, "What you're doing is dangerous. Who you're doing is _for,_ is dangerous."

Lucy's eyes flicked to the ground. "I know."

But did she _really_ understand? Could she? Lady Eileen was the kind of right hand that had secrets.

An image circled up from somewhere deep and dark—Natsu couldn't recall if it was a dream or a memory, not for sure, but in it, he was small, and the castle was dark, and he ran through its corridors. Zeref would be chasing him shortly. It was a game Natsu always lost and was tired of it, so when the chance to beat out his brother presented itself, Natsu took it, stealing down a dark corridor his father had forbidden him from.

Natsu could still remember the way it angled abruptly down, the way the air's flavour changed, became damp and mildewed, and cold, the way its flavour got sharp with iron. He remembered the laughing, too, that rose up to greet him. Deep, male, bubbling and erratic.

He followed its sound, though it left a sour taste on his tongue that later when he was standing in a snowy field wet with blood and his parents' bodies torn apart around him, he identified as fear.

Natsu could still see the way the hallway opened, and the first scone in several hundred metres lit up the pocked and wet floor. There was a man chained to the wall and in front of him was waves and waves of scarlet that glimmered in the firelight.

The man laughed and laughed, struggling to reach the red, and then the red reached back with claws as sharp as jagged metal. His voice got low and his breath caught and something very primal and desperate and decidedly _adult_ moved through it. And then he started to scream.

Natsu had run from there and hadn't looked back, but he'd returned the night after, drawn in by some sick fascination, and found the man festering and dead, missing his eyes, a gaping hole in his chest.

When he'd run to tell his father, his father told him he'd dreamed it and put him to bed, where Natsu had nightmares for most of the night.

He'd checked the corridor the next day, unable to help himself, but the castle's walls almost looked warped, and the hallway led back to the antechamber. Try as he might, Natsu couldn't ever find the room with the bleeding man and his tormentor. He told himself his father was right, he _had_ been dreaming, but deep in his heart, he knew it was more sinister than that.

Natsu stumbled from the thoughts, blinking until Lucy came into focus. She searched for whatever hell it was he'd descended into, wary of the fear in his eyes, obviously, but no stranger to its ilk. "The cause is worth it."

"I'll repeat that to myself when I have fifty swords marching at my back tomorrow."

Lucy squeezed his hands. "You agreed, then?"

He hadn't much choice. Natsu nodded minutely. Lucy's face broke into a resplendent grin that he endeavoured to quash. "I want you to cancel any deal with her and go somewhere safe."

The light tamped in Lucy's eyes, just like Natsu thought. "It's not that easy, Crown Prince."

"I can make it so."

"With gold and jewels to ease whatever passage fees I might incur?" she asked snidely.

Natsu felt like he was stepping into a thorn bush. He toed the area cautiously. "You'll be safe."

"I don't _want_ to be _safe_ ," Lucy snarled. "I want to do good. I want to finish what I started."

"Why is it so important to you?"

"Because…"

Natsu waited patiently. Lucy's eyes fluttered closed. "Someone important was taken from me."

His heart wrenched. "A lover?"

She cracked her eyelid and gave him a reproachful look. "Truly? That's what you think?"

"Well…"

"Has anyone told His Royal Majesty that his brother is dense sometimes? Because I fear it's critical."

Natsu's cheeks flared. "What's a man to think?"

"When a woman enters his chambers dressed in a robe and a dressing gown?" Lucy tugged at the satin tie holding the flaps of her robe closed. They fluttered aside and Natsu could see her clearly. She wore a thin red silk sheath and that was all. It clung to her body, staticed there. "What is he to think?" Lucy repeated.

Natsu opened and closed his mouth, fumbling. Lucy's eyes flashed. She turned on her heel and started toward the door. He had a feeling if he let her, she'd leave him there, stiff and aching, without a moment's remorse. Natsu grabbed her hand and pulled her into him. It wasn't an apology, but words had always eluded Natsu. He kissed her experimentally, waiting for her to turn him away, but once Lucy had worked her hand out of his grip, she held the back of his neck and returned his kiss, just as slow, just as experimentally.

The blood rushed from Natsu's head. He felt dazed and confused and for a moment thought one of the maladies Happy was always warning him about was working through his blood. Then he realized it was just the effect Lucy had on him.

Natsu pulled her closer to his body and felt the warmth of her skin through her shift and his robe. He pressed against her middle and Lucy made a noise of pleasure that made Natsu stiffer.

Silk rustled as Natsu worked to get her robe off her shoulders. Gold tresses tangled in his fingers. Lucy shivered at the noise of frustration he made. It wasn't right she took so much pleasure in his desperation. It wasn't right that Natsu loved that about her.

When he got lost in just the feel of her lips against his, Lucy worked her clothes from her shoulders. They fell around her feet in a red puddle. Natsu felt her doing the same to his, getting his robe open, her fingers on his bare skin. They slid from his chest to his back and then down, where she grabbed him tightly and pulled him closer still, as though she'd been desperate without him.

Lucy leaned away. Candlelight rosed her cheeks and gilded her hair. Natsu looked at her for too long. "You're beautiful," he said and brushed his fingers over her cheek. "And too bright for this dark place." This kingdom of secrets and lies and death.

"Darkness can't exist without light," she told him. "Each one is only there to compliment the other."

"Then I hope you never leave."

Lucy smiled and sank to her knees right there on the carpet. Natsu kept his eyes open as she kissed his middle and his hip and more delicate parts, though they longed to close in ecstasy. He needed more light in his life.

* * *

The dampness that draped over the grounds just before sunrise had leeched in through the shutters and settled deep in the stone floor. Natsu used his magic to spark a fire in the hearth and felt goosebumps skitter down his arms.

The firelight was the only illumination in the room, and in its glow, he watched Lucy breathe quietly on her side of the mattress. He'd felt her rise shortly after they'd collapsed into bed. He thought she was returning to her own chambers for the remainder of the night, and she _had_ left, but she'd come back shortly afterward, stripped bare and wrapped around him for warmth. He longed to ask what trouble she'd been up to, but he thought he knew. Usually, the yard would be filled with Silver's booming voice as he worked his men through their morning routine, but it was suspiciously quiet. Lucy was Lady Eileen's sword in every battle, it seemed.

Natsu dressed carefully in his best doublet and hose. Contrarily, he worked his feet into a worn pair of leather boots. He brushed his hair back, so he looked presentable and cleaned the sleep out of his eyes. He was exhausted, but lazy princes didn't garner the respect he was reaching for today.

When he was ready, he opened his door and marched out into the hallway. Two guards waited for him; he doubted they were the ones the other him had dismissed last night.

They nodded and bowed shallowly and fell into step behind him. Natsu barely paid them any mind, his thoughts were a nervous jumble. It took all his effort to put one foot in front of the other and _not_ trip.

The next door opened and Happy poked his head out. He glared at Natsu, disheveled. But he was dressed. He must have heard Natsu moving about. "Where are you going so early, Your Highness?"

Natsu fumbled; he didn't have a good excuse. "No rest when there's hard work ahead," he managed.

Happy closed his door and matched Natsu's steps. He fixed his doublet on the way and smoothed his hair back. He looked put together in a few short steps if it weren't for the bruises beneath his eyes. Natsu stepped through the massive wooden doors into the courtyard.

Clean morning air bit Natsu's cheeks and permeated his lungs. He breathed deeply, imagining it cleaned his thoughts and made him more confident.

"The Mess Hall is the other way," Happy said when it became obvious Natsu was heading in the opposite direction.

"I know where I am," Natsu said, annoyed.

Happy turned his penetration gaze on Natsu. "Then why are we heading toward the barracks?"

"Because I'm going to the barracks." There wasn't a graceful way to dismiss Happy, so the truth would have to do.

"Why are we doing that?" Happy asked, purposefully obtuse.

"I think I'd like some tea," Natsu announced.

"And a servant that doesn't ask any questions," Happy muttered too quietly for the trailing guards to hear.

Natsu sighed. "I received a disconcerting report that needs investigating and Silver's indisposed."

" _Indisposed_? Who are you?" Happy asked shrewdly.

Natsu furrowed his brow. "The Crown Prince, so tone down your sarcasm."

Happy had the decency to look ashamed. "When did you receive this report, Crown Prince?"

"Late last night," Natsu responded.

Happy pressed his lips together. It was obvious he didn't believe Natsu, but he was too polite to call him an outright liar. At least in front of the other men.

The barracks appeared, two long buildings of simple design, brick with very few windows, and two doors, one for the women, one for the men. The grass around them was stamped flat and dead in some areas from the many feet that traversed it.

Men and women in leather training gear stood out front beneath the hazy morning sky, looking confused. They chatted amongst themselves, clearly trying to decide how to proceed. Natsu approached cautiously. There was supposed to be a lieutenant left in charge in Silver's absence, but it didn't seem like anyone was stepping up to the challenge. Did Lady Eileen take care of them as well to ensure the most amount of chaos possible?

" _Hope it's not contagious_ ," Natsu heard a man whisper when he was closer, and he had his answer.

His presence was noted when he was almost upon them. The knights straightened rank and faced him. "Your Highness," said a short one with a slight frame. "You're the one the Captain sent to train with us today?"

Natsu had gotten his liar's legs beneath him and shook his head. "We have something more important than training to do today."

Everyone perked up.

Natsu made his voice as large as he dared in case Zeref was somewhere, listening in. "We've received word of a potential threat to our kingdom. It needs our immediate attention. Get your horses ready and arm yourselves. And prepare prisoner transport," he added last minute.

They murmured amongst themselves. Most clearly, Natsu head someone say, " _Is this a drill?_ "

" _Now_ ," Natsu barked, drawing on his brother's gift for inspiration, "or you'll be tried for insubordination."

Everyone scrambled after that.

"You're getting better at lying, Crown Prince," Happy commented when they were alone.

"I think you're supposed to be getting my horse ready, Happy," Natsu said.

* * *

It was too early for the streets to be thick with children and families, but vendors were out in quiet force, getting their stalls ready for the day. They watched the King's Guard warily, eyes lingering on Natsu out front in the armour Happy had held out for him. He felt confined and proper, almost the princely brother Zeref wished he had. He expected that to make his skin itch, but Natsu donned the mantle today with a sense of pride and purpose. And trepidation. What would Lady Eileen do to him if he messed up? What would Zeref say when he returned?

Happy seemed to be just as nervous. He'd put on leather armour and snagged a dagger from somewhere, but he wouldn't be involved in any fighting if there was some to come. He looked back at the carriage the kingdom used to transport large quantities of people to Alvarez's jails. "What exactly was the nature of this report?"

One of the men riding nearby pressed his leg to his horse's side to get closer. "Yes, Your Highness, what _was_ the nature of this report?"

Natsu's palms felt sweaty. How much could he reveal? All of it? Because he was going to need a solid reason for commandeering the King's Guard and making a parade through the city with them. There was no way this operation was going to fly under Zeref's nose. The best he could hope for was forgiveness.

"We're searching for evidence of slavery," Natsu said, slowing to a stop near the gates. "Expect force. Take prisoners but kill no one if you can avoid it." They'd be more useful alive, able to answer any burning questions they might have.

Word traveled through the small company with the force of a wildfire, and once it had burned through, there was silence, save for the clap of horse hooves on the pavement and the creak of leather beneath steel. Faces were sombre and serious. Natsu smiled grimly, his beliefs in his cause reinforced by his company's.

The smell of salt stung Natsu's nose as they got close to the ocean. He spotted the docks under intense reconstruction, and the Fiore Delegation boat floating in the harbour. He longed to know what was in its bowels, but one concise strike was more than enough for one day.

The streets changed from dirt to paved stone in a matter of blocks. The houses transformed, shacks to towering palaces with guarded gates and flourishing gardens. Natsu eyed the one in question as it rose up in the distance and felt his stomach roil. The men behind him were respectfully silent, but he could feel their eyes on him every step of the way. Judging his worthiness for this position and his ability to execute this strike.

Natsu realized he'd made a grave mistake. He had to coordinate an action plan. He couldn't just barge in through the front gate and demand the slaves. He cringed at his thoughtlessness. Zeref was right; he was too short-sighted for this position.

_You can scold yourself after. Right now, you need a plan,_ Natsu thought. He tugged up on his reins, bringing his horse to a stop. The knights did the same. Fifty pairs of eyes focused on him. The sweat moved from Natsu's palms to his temples and down his back. He'd always worked best under pressure, though.

Natsu dug through his memories for hand signals and mimed them to his company. He was relieved when two groups broke off from the main to do what he suggested. They faded into the side streets and continued, more discrete. The third group closed behind him, pushing him toward the middle, and then they were on the move again.

Shutters opened as maids and footmen looked out. Gossip chased their probing gazes; Natsu could hear it leaping from one pair of lips to the next. Soon, the entire city would be whispering about how the prince of Alvarez led his knights to raid a Fiore Duke's sea-side home.

Armed men stood guard at a pair of massive iron gates. Gargoyles grinned down, pointed tongues poking through pointed teeth, pointed claws gripping pointed bars. Everything looked inhospitable. Exactly the kind of place to hide enslaved girls.

The Duke's men stepped forward, barring Natsu's company's way. "State your business."

It was Happy that spoke up. "Open, in the name of His Royal Highness, Prince Natsu."

Natsu knew before Happy stopped speaking that they'd never let them through peacefully. A contingent of personal guards wearing deep purple and the Duke's crest poured out of crannies like ants from a colony. They settled around the gate, armed and ready for anything.

"We humbly request that His Royal Highness respect the treaty and leave this property," said the man out front. He sounded cordial but his hand rested on the top of his sword. Natsu kept his eye on it; it glittered in the first rays of the sun, well cared for and probably brutally sharp. Dimaria's swords shone the same way.

"Normally, that would be enough, but this is a matter of national security. The treaty doesn't protect you here," Natsu said, revealing himself.

The Duke's men shared a look of disbelief. They hadn't expected the prince to join them, obviously. Good. Maybe now they'd understand how dire the situation was.

As soon as the thought came, Natsu shut it down. The Duke's men firmed up a line in front of them, making their stance on the matter irrefutably plain. They would not gain access peacefully.

"If you force entry here, it will be seen as an act of aggression by the Fiorian government," said the Duke's frontman.

Natsu cleared his mind of his doubts. He was in the right if his people were in trouble. He lifted his hand and his men moved forward on his command, swords out, armour grinding, menace in the air.

The Duke's men rallied and protected the Duke's home, but once Natsu's other two parties circled around as he'd commanded, and infiltrated the Duke's property from the back, there was no hope.

Natsu tried his fire in a more threatening capacity and was both delighted and horrified. He knew fire was destructive, but watching it eat through the Duke's trees and scorch the ground, cutting off his troops from returning to the mansion, gave him a sense of inflated power he didn't think to be concerned with until one man ran through the fires anyway and started to burn. Natsu had to use his magic to smother the flames or watch the man die before his eyes.

The fight ended shortly after with only the groans of pain and residual smoke rising in the air to mark the occasion. Some men and women were bleeding. None lay supine on the ground, however. Natsu counted that as a win.

"Restrain them and send an advance unit out to transport them back to the dungeons. I want them there before the sun rises." The fewer people that saw them, the better.

Half of the Guard scrambled to do what Natsu ordered. The other half rallied at his side, waiting for his next instructions. Natsu looked at the foreboding mansion, stomach twisted in nerves again. He never felt this way when steel was clashing against steel, or his magic was rushing out of him.

_You made the right choice. Lady Eileen will back you; the King's Guard will back you; and once you find what you're looking for, the rescued slaves will back you._

He straightened his shoulders and pushed onward. His men were already at the mansion's door, bursting their way through. Wood splintered with a great crack and the smell of someone's home rushed out—baking, clean linen, perfumes all mingling together. Natsu was struck by the ordinariness of it all. He didn't know what he expected—brimstone and tears? The Duke was a man, not a devil.

A maid waited on the other side of the door looking positively faint. "Crown Prince—" she was so shrunken in on herself, Natsu was surprised she hadn't slipped through the wall.

"Where's the lord of this house?"

She stuttered and fumbled and didn't get a single word out.

"Where are the girls?"

Her mouth worked; still, no sound came out.

"Turn it upside down," Natsu ordered his people. They flanked out around him and moved through the manor like a plague through the slums. Staff screamed. Any that resisted were corralled toward the exit where Natsu waited. He searched their faces for anyone that looked pliable enough to turn on their lord but whenever he questioned them, they'd turn their eyes to the ground and pretend like they didn't hear him. It was maddening.

The first group of his men returned empty-handed. The second, too. Natsu was starting to get desperate. He ventured further into the manor against Happy's wishes. Happy scurried to his side and kept pace.

"Where _are_ they?" Natsu murmured. "Lords don't just disappear."

"Perhaps there's a secret exit?" Happy suggested.

"How did they get out? Our men surrounded the manor."

Happy suggested the unthinkable. "Perhaps they were tipped off?"

Natsu stopped. "By who?"

"Whoever whispered the Lord's involvement in your ear?"

He refused to accept that. "Lady Eileen looked genuinely concerned."

" _Lady_ _Eileen,_ " Happy hissed quietly. He schooled his expression before it could get out of hand. "You know as well as I, she's as sly as a snake."

Natsu shook his head and bound up the staircase three steps at a time. The hallway at the top was eerily still. He threw open door after door, looking in at primped and empty chambers. He had the sudden urge to burn the manor to the ground.

Fire was licking at his fingertips when he opened the last door. Cardinal red made him smother it.

He stepped into the room cautiously, wary of traps or hiding servants armed with sharp pokers. Nothing leaped out of the corners.

"Who is that?" Happy asked, looking at the painting that'd stalled Natsu in his tracks.

"Lady Eileen's personal business, I imagine," Natsu said. The woman in it was her spitting image, drowning in scarlet hair.

"Her sister?" Happy got close to the portrait. It was life-sized and towered over him on the wall. "Her daughter?"

Natsu heard a sharp intake of breath. He followed the source across the room to the closet. He was there before he made the conscious decision to move and tore back the door.

He saw her for only a split second but there was no mistaking Lisanna's sky blue eyes and cloud-coloured hair. He reached for her. She backpedaled and hit the back wall. Her skin mottled and changed before his eyes, becoming scaly and tough. Natsu was confused enough to let it happen.

Lisanna dropped to the ground in front of him, a snake, and slithered lightning fast around his feet.

Natsu turned. Happy drew his dagger. He began to wield it.

"No!" Natsu yelled.

He needn't fear. Lisanna changed shape again, as fluid as water, and was a bird creature. She kicked at Happy's chest with sharply clawed feet. Happy fell and Lisanna burst out the window. Glass shattered and sprinkled across the ground in a fine mist.

Natsu raced to the window after her but she was already gone, a dot in the sky.


	21. Chapter 21

The castle looked formidable as Natsu approached, a blot on the horizon. As he got closer, he realized why. Shadows buzzed around it like flies around a corpse, his brother's magic permeating every nook, every cranny.

Happy shrank back behind Natsu. The rest of the company did as well, trading looks back and forth, whispering as people would before a storm hit. Natsu wished _he_ had someone to shrink behind as well, but of course, there were just his ideals. He held them up like a shield as he passed through the gates.

Dimaria was at her usual post as he entered. She took in his countenance, raised her eyebrow. "His Majesty requests your presence in the Throne Room." It wasn't very hard to decipher what she was thinking—he was in deep waters and no one was going to help him swim.

"Take the prisoners to the dungeons," Natsu ordered and was thankful his voice still sounded authoritative.

A group of soldiers gladly broke off and corralled the caravan away. The rest escorted him to the castle. He dismounted and handed his reins to a waiting squire and turned on Happy. "How do I look?"

"Battle-rough," Happy said.

"But presentable?" He didn't think his brother would allow him to delay by returning to his rooms to change. Nor did he want to. He wanted to prove to Zeref that he could be the person Zeref thought him incapable of being.

"Well enough," Happy said.

Natsu nodded stiffly and summoned his fire, using it to burn away the shadows that sheltered the door. The rest retreated quickly after that, granting him entrance. Zeref knew he had returned.

Happy tried to fall into step behind him.

"I want you to return to your rooms," Natsu said.

"My spot is beside you, Your Highness."

Happy was as loyal as could be. But still. It wasn't worth it. "That's an order."

Happy pursed his lips as though he'd sucked on a lemon. "That's unfair."

Life was unfair. "I'll take tea when I return."

Happy muttered as he walked away. Natsu wended his way to the Throne Room. Guards eyed him as he entered and pretended that they didn't. The entire castle was enshrouded in tension.

Inside the large doubled doors, the Throne Room was empty, save for Zeref, who slouched in his throne, sullen, his many-ringed fingers _tapping_ on the bronze arm. He looked up through a fringe of hair as Natsu entered; his expression frozen on fury. There was a goblet of something overwhelmingly sweet in his hand and when he squeezed his fingers tight, his magic slipped out and crushed the goblet, shattering it into a million pieces. Pottery and mead, Natsu could see now, dripped with blood from several cuts on his fingers.

"Brother." Natsu even went so far as to bow low in front of Zeref, beseeching his forgiveness.

"Look at me," Zeref commanded.

Natsu's mouth was suddenly dry but he lifted his head and addressed his brother properly.

Zeref was imperious looking down at him through his dark lashes. The golden crown he wore was tipped slightly to the left on his surprisingly messy locks. "Tell me what you've done."

Natsu jutted out his chin. "I infiltrated a criminal's home in search of the slaves he kept, which was within my right as the Crown Prince."

"Oh?" His dark eyebrow shot up into his hairline.

"Slave trading is against the law in our country." Just in case Zeref forgot the laws he helped write.

Zeref didn't look like he forgot, though. The air blackened around him and the bronze of his throne weathered as if it'd been exposed to the elements for hundreds of years. Natsu took a step back when the blackness started edging across the floor, reaching for his toes. He'd seen that magic rot grass and trees, stop ten birds' hearts, all at once. And worse. The last time Zeref had an episode, they'd been children, their parents had just died, and he was upset. The courtier his father kept by his side had been the only one affected, falling to her pretty knees and breathing her last, but Natsu never once doubted the reach of his brother's magic, its terrifying capacity to end all that it touched.

"Zeref…" Natsu began.

The sound of his voice cleared the shadows from his brother's eyes. They both looked horrified, both clearly remembering the day the courtier was carted from the Throne Room beneath a shroud and Miss Porlyusica's tight-lipped retrieval of both boys. The silence that followed encapsulated the castle for weeks. Rumours of the new boy king and his frightening power.

For all that, Zeref never lacked those around him. The world was hungry for power, the more vicious, the better.

Zeref blinked. He looked more himself. "I had a morning planned for you. With our delegation. Your presence was missed. Along with half of my army."

Natsu opened his mouth. "It was a deserving mission."

Zeref's cold eyes looked fathomlessly black. "Who gave you the order to act?"

"No one," Natsu said.

"Then why the sudden interest in marshalling our men into battle against a Fiorian ambassador while their delegation is visiting us?" Each word was sharp as jagged metal and looked to draw blood.

Natsu said, "I heard the rumour."

"Rumour," Zeref repeated as though it was a filthy word.

"Yes. And you were indisposed. Silver and his lieutenant were nowhere to be seen. There wasn't anywhere else I could turn. I knew I had to act. Those people needed help."

"Silver and his lieutenant both mysteriously came down with a case of ember fig poisoning."

Natsu bit back a wince. Ember figs were almost identical to ostrich figs, except for a thin red vein of toxin that ran down their centre. If consumed, they caused cramps, vomiting, and delusions. In high doses, they could be deadly.

"The cooks are being questioned, but I think it's more likely it was slipped into their mead at the tavern last night." Zeref removed a handkerchief from his pocket and wrapped it around his bleeding hand, seemingly noticing for the first time in several minutes that he was cut.

Natsu tried to maintain a neutral expression. "That's horrible."

"It is, isn't it?" He looked at Natsu too long, too smart by half. "A measured dose like that would be easy for someone of Lucy's skill to mix, wouldn't it?"

"I imagine," Natsu said. "But that doesn't make her guilty."

Zeref looked as though he had other opinions on the matter. "I wonder, where was our venerated healer last night?"

"In my bed," Natsu said without missing a beat, but in his thoughts, Lucy was rising and leaving his rooms for quite some time, stealing into the night to cause havoc on Lady Eileen's behest.

"Before, or after your ridiculous revelling?" Zeref drawled.

Natsu felt his cheeks heat. He dropped his brother's eyes. "I can explain."

"Which part? Lady Juvia's concern over seeing you stumbling drunk in a gown much too small for you? Or your destroyed rooms? Invel's unwillingness to discuss your imbibing? And how, I wonder, were you conscious enough to get up the next morning, gather troops, and, again, raid a Fiorian ambassador's home?"

"I suppose I wasn't as drunk as the castle thought."

"Which is _very_. Perhaps someone made you a tonic?"

Bringing them back to Lucy. She was forever going to be a target in his eyes.

"You're being ridiculous."

Silence slung between them, thick enough to cut through. Natsu was afraid of whatever was coming next so he let it lie, hoping like a storm it would all pass. Zeref wasn't as generous as that, though. He rallied his thoughts and said, "Let's say against all odds, you weren't manipulated and were able to hold your liquor." He was very much the condescending big brother at that moment. "Did you find your evidence in the duke's home?"

Natsu scrubbed the back of his neck. "Well…"

"Well?"

"Not definitively. But the duke's men weren't going to let us enter, and the duke fled. I haven't figured out how he knew we were coming. Happy thinks he was tipped off," Natsu rushed. "Which means we have a traitor in our midst."

"The sea is thick with them." Zeref's lip curled.

Another bout of silence so thick, Natsu could hear seagulls calling from beyond the leaded windows.

Zeref heaved a sigh; the anger ran from him, now he just looked resigned. That did not bode well for Natsu. "You've put us in a very precarious position. The delegation is demanding we make amends and I find myself unable to deny them. We've wronged them on our own soil."

True enough. "What will you do?" Natsu asked.

"They're requesting your imprisonment on their ship until they've decided whether or not you should return to Fiore with them where you'll face trial."

"In their savage land," Natsu rolled his eyes, but his brother wasn't acting with him. "Zeref."

He looked at Natsu plaintively. "What am I to do? Go to war? We'll wait until their duke is found and he will decide your fate."

"You're not serious."

He was, though. "You're my brother and I love you, but I've long told you, you're too impulsive. Normally your games are humorous and harmless, but this time, you've gone too far, Natsu."

Natsu's heart beat like the ocean pushed by a storm. "Yes, and yes and yes, but I can prove I was right that the duke was keeping slaves in his mansion."

"No." Zeref tapped his fingers more aggressively. "You've been played for a fool and you need to answer for yourself this time. Politics won't let it be otherwise."

"What do you mean to do?"

Zeref lifted his hand and the door swung open. The Fiorian delegation entered, Juvia heading the pack, and fanned out around them was a contingency of Alvarez guards. Among them was Eileen's scarlet hair.

"Lady Eileen," Natsu said desperately but she would not meet his gaze.

"You'll need magic-resistant shackles," Lady Eileen said. She stepped forward with the chains in question and took Natsu's wrist in her clawed hand. Natsu's stomach sank into his feet as the metal locked in place. Surely this was a game. Or they were teaching him a lesson. A very good lesson.

" _Zeref_."

His face was impassable.

Lady Eileen's magic crawled over Natsu like a million termites scraping out of their hill. He was chilled all over, itchy. Impulsively, he tried to use his magic, but his magic only bubbled up inside of him and fizzled away painfully. Lady Eileen's spell had already taken hold and he was helpless

"You can't _do_ this," Natsu insisted, looking into Eileen's icy features. "I _helped_ you."

"Do not speak of me," Lady Eileen commanded. There was power in her voice and Natsu found he could not get out any word pertaining to Eileen. He screamed in frustration and writhed.

"Zeref!" At least she hadn't silenced him completely, though she may as well have. He couldn't speak the truth as to who led him to the duke's home. Zeref made it seem like he didn't see Natsu at all. He watched the delegation with schooled features.

Desperately, Natsu spat out, "I know about Lisanna. I saw her. Hiding. In the duke's home."

Natsu felt Eileen start beside him. Zeref finally looked at him, however, his expression was bored. "I've put you under a lot of pressure, brother, and I'm sorry for it. I'll have Lady Lucy cook you a salve for the mind to bring you back to your senses."

"I saw her!" Natsu insisted. "She turned into a snake at the duke's home. And before that, she was lurking in the servants' tunnels. She—"

"There are no such things as ghosts." Zeref waved his hand. Lady Eileen stepped aside and Juvia stepped forward. She took Natsu by the elbow and guided him from the Throne Room. He fought but there was no escape, on either side were armed guards and there wasn't a friendly face among them. He tried again and again to use his magic.

"You'll burn yourself up from the inside," Juvia warned in her lilting accent. "Please, Your Highness. Don't fight."

There was an audience as the Throne Room doors were thrown open, three thick all the way down the hallway. People stared at him with wide eyes, perhaps remembering the last unfortunate soul to be dragged out of the Throne Room in chains.


	22. Chapter 22

Natsu did not like ships on the best of days. Storm days were hell on earth. At port, protected by a pier and a peninsula, you'd think there'd be nowhere for the ship to rock, but even its gentle seesawing was too damn much. He was below deck; no port holes to see out of, and the trap door was closed, so he couldn't even see sky. He could only listen to the waves slap the side of the ship, a wet _thuck, thuck, thuck,_ and the wind howling in response.

Juvia took pity on him three days ago and gave him a bucket to be sick into and even managed to still the waters in a radius around the ship to make it stop rocking so much. The sickness was bred-in-the-bone, though, and couldn't be banished now that it'd begun.

His clothing clung to him with cold sweat. The stench of onions and cabbage and other root vegetables suitable for long journeys furthered his nausea, and he would do anything, _anything_ , to get off this goddamn boat.

" _Please_ ," Natsu called to no one. He managed not to beg on the first day, but they were approaching a week of exile in this hellhole, he was exhausted, dehydrated, and starving, and if he had any pride left, he'd trade it for the chance to get out of here. He would bargain anything he had; he'd _say anything_. He'd try anything, and had. His shackles couldn't be picked, his magic couldn't be forced through them, he couldn't bull his way through the hull of the ship and into the cool waters beyond.

"Hello!"

Sometimes, he thought they left him on board by himself to wither, in hopes that when they returned from their lavish parties, he'd be dead. Then he'd hear someone sigh or cough or the croak of deck boards and he'd know he wasn't the last person on earth.

" _Hello!_ "

"Would you _be quiet_?" barked a familiar voice finally. Natsu hadn't seen much of Duke Porla. When he first arrived, he came down the steps to sneer at Natsu. Natsu had thrown up on his expensive leather shoes, however, and the gloating and threatening had been cut short. He was coming down now.

Natsu had to squint against the drab daylight as the door was thrown open. His eyes burned and he couldn't look up. He tried focusing instead on a spot on the damp and filthy floor to give his eyes time to adjust. It wasn't a pretty sight. This part of the ship would benefit from a razing, that's how filthy it was.

Natsu asked, "Have you found the duke yet?" Raiding his sea-side home felt like a thing that had happened to someone else. For all that he'd tried, Natsu couldn't fathom what made him think that was a good idea.

"No." Duke Porla knelt in front of Natsu and looked him over head-to-foot. Natsu was in a sorry state; his clothes seemed to hang off his frame. Porla curled his nose. "You're filthy."

Natsu showed his teeth in a snarl and before he could stop himself, he was cursing at Jose Porla in a way he'd never cursed at anyone before, inventing words and marrying others.

Jose stood and looked down his nose at Natsu as though he were a parasite. "Stand."

Natsu quieted. His thoughts ticked away, trying to suss out Jose's angle. Was he going to beat him? And, more importantly, could Natsu somehow get by him and escape this hell pit? He wasn't sure where he'd go but it would be far, far away where he wouldn't be a fugitive. He wasn't sure which skills he'd peddle to make his way through life as a regular human, but he'd figure something out.

Impatient, Jose grabbed Natsu by the bicep and hauled him to his feet with surprising strength.

Natsu braced himself for a thrashing that never came. Jose pulled him bodily across the deck and pushed him up the stairs into the storm. No rain touched the deck, it was held back by magic, and no wind pushed Natsu's hair from his forehead, though beyond the decking, a wicked tempest bore down on Alvarez. The skies were drab for as far as the eye could see and the sea was a diamond in the ruff, grey on grey on grey. Natsu drank the sight in, still sick, but better now that he could see the horizon.

"Keep walking." Jose pushed between his shoulders.

"I may be a prisoner but I'm still royalty," Natsu growled. There was more bark than bite in him; his knees were wobbly.

Jose stepped in front of him and bowed. "Your Highness, if you please."

Natsu knew he was being mocked but when Jose waved him into the captain's quarters where a spread of food and water waited, he forgot how to be righteously angry. In the corner of the room, Jose's tall guard waited. Natsu tried to remember his name but could not.

"Bath first," Jose ordered as Natsu was reaching for a piece of mango with his filthy hands.

Natsu stilled. "Will you remove my shackles?" He held his breath, waiting for Jose's answer.

Jose plucked a ripe strawberry from the same fruit platter Natsu was reaching for and made a show of savouring it, breathing in its fresh aroma before taking a bite. "Aria will assist you."

Natsu's chest felt tight with excitement. He tried to appear neutral. "Thank you."

Jose waved them on. Aria opened a door in the corner of the room and ushered Natsu inside. The space was tight, a vanity on one side, a full tub for bathing in the other. Steam rose from the water, smelling like rosewater. The bath looked _so good,_ Natsu almost banished his thoughts of escape.

Nearly.

"Hands." With his eyes covered by bandages, Natsu couldn't tell what Aria was thinking or feeling as he held up his bound hands for Aria's key.

"What happened to your eyes?" Natsu wondered.

Aria was a man of few words and kept his own counsel. He undid one of the shackles, moving unhindered as though he could see. After the _click_ of the lock releasing, relief flooded through Natsu. He wiggled his raw wrist. There was blood caking his skin and flakes of skin where his flesh had roughed. It hurt but in a good way. In a free way.

He held up his hand for the next.

"Only one," Aria monotoned.

The unjustness of it all hit Natsu and almost laid him flat. "How am I to bathe with shackles on my wrist?"

Aria stood like a pillar in front of the door. "You have ten minutes. Then we return to Duke Porla."

 _It's an inconvenience,_ Natsu thought, _the spell is weak enough,_ and with all the strength he could muster, he summoned his magic.

It expanded in his chest, poured hot lava through his veins, reached the end of his fingertips. And then just before it released, it backfired, retracted all throughout his body, and he felt like he was burning from the inside out. He curled in on himself, not even able to scream his pain. Lady Eileen's enchantment was like a layer of scalding oil. His skin was the water it coated, and he could not break free. He could only drown in agony.

Through it all, Aria patiently watched with his arms crossed over his chest.

It was some time before Natsu could move without pain. He sat up first, then, cautiously, stood, breathing heavily. He could smell himself contrasting against the rosewater. Sweat and bile and something near defeat.

"Five minutes now," Aria said in his same droning voice. It was like all the happy had been sapped out of him and all that was left was this husk of a miserable man who did not cry because he did not yet know he was miserable.

Natsu stripped and climbed into the cooling water. Days of filth peeled off him. Slowly, he scrubbed every inch of himself he could possibly reach. He missed Happy. He missed the castle. He missed his life before Lady Eileen meddled in it. He missed the option of changing out his water so he could bathe again. He was sure he'd be denied if he asked. He very much didn't want to ask. _And_ he was out of time.

Natsu accepted the towel Aria gave him, and then the new clothes. They were plain white but well-made and warm. Dressed, he expected Aria to put his shackle back on, but he didn't.

Out they went. Jose was sitting behind a long wooden desk with a plate of food in front of him, his ledgers on the corner. He ate with his hands. "You smell better than rat piss, at least."

Natsu bristled. "When you leave a person for a week with no way to clean themselves—"

Jose interrupted. "Eat. _Highness._ "

"Fuck you."

Jose wiped the edges of his mouth with a cloth. He wasn't affected by Natsu's seething. In fact, he seemed to rather enjoy it. "Aria, get our prince a plate."

Aria did as he was told, heaping it high and set it down across from Jose. Glistening exotic fruits and honeyed buns, fresh sliced meat and imported cheeses. Natsu stared at it. His stomach was turning itself inside out. He couldn't tell if he was nauseous because he hadn't eaten anything in days or if it was the constant to and fro of the ship.

Jose said nothing and eventually, Natsu's grumbling stomach got the best of him. He sat in the seat across from Jose and picked up a bun first, thinking that was the safe bet. It was hell getting it to go down. He washed it back with cold water. Some of his sickness abated. He ate more. Slowly, warily.

"Once you're done, you can use my chambers to freshen up, Highness," Jose offered with a curl of his lips.

Natsu paused, a piece of mango half-way to his mouth. "What's changed?"

It was like he was talking to a wall. Jose continued to eat and Natsu received no answer. It took some effort to get into the headspace of _prisoner_ , even after he spent days in the hull of the ship in darkness. He banished the urge to order it out of Jose. He'd be laughed at and he didn't know what he'd do then. Beat Jose with his bare hands and further ruin the relationship between their two countries?

 _Why are you even worried about that at a time like this_? Natsu scolded himself. Zeref _abandoned_ him to Fiore. He _banished_ him to imprisonment in the bottom of a ship when he _knew_ Natsu got seasick. He—

Was walking across the port with Lucy in tow.

Natsu stood so he could better see out of Jose's windows. Lucy and Zeref had ridden in on horses. They left them at the edge of the market with a segment of the guard. The rest of the armed men trailed ahead and behind Zeref, making sure no beggar got to close, no disenchanted got the chance to lob anything rotten at His Royal Majesty.

"Is it time already? Up you get, Highness," Jose still sneered. Natsu hated his smarmy face. He wanted to hit it.

He found the restraint only because Jose left the room to invite Zeref on the ship. Aria remained watching Natsu; his face was as stoic as a stone.

"Don't you smile?" Natsu asked. Aria ignored him, of course. "You curl the edges here," he mimed at his lips. "And contract your face muscles. Like this." He showed his teeth. "Your eyes will get squinty and your disposition may even improve. I recommend you try."

Nothing.

Natsu sighed and turned his attention outside the cabin. Zeref was boarding the ship in all his kingly glory. He wore a crushed velvet cloak that was whipped by the wind until he stepped into Jose's enchantment. Natsu suddenly felt sick. Was he going to bring up everything he just ate? Not only did he notice the movement of the ship again, but he was also nervous. He didn't know what he was going to say to his brother or what his brother was going to say to him or what Lucy was doing there on his tail. Natsu practiced an angry face and then a tranquil face, trying to decide which was better to greet them.

His countenance always rested back in sickness.

It took everything in Natsu's power not to throw open the door of Jose's quarters and throw himself at Zeref's feet, begging forgiveness or at least a transfer of cells. He would gladly pay his penance in the dungeons below the castle if it meant getting off this damn boat.

 _Don't be desperate,_ Natsu reminded himself as Jose returned to his quarters with Zeref in tow. Lucy was a few steps behind them. Her eyes skimmed over the decking and the sails before landing on Natsu. Pain flickered over her face, and sympathy.

The door opened and Zeref came through, trailing with him the scent of the storm and his pomade. His shoulders were damp and his hair beaded water, which meant Lady Eileen wasn't travelling with them. Peculiar.

Natsu didn't bow. Couldn't bring himself to take his eyes off the horizon.

Zeref looked him over top-to-toe and wheeled on Jose. "He looks ill."

Jose bowed just at the waist. "Seasickness only, Your Majesty."

Zeref's eyes flashed like the coals of a fire. He stepped toward Jose. "I told you he was seasick, and you promised your mages could rectify it without the aid of a healer. I had to hear from one of your staff that my brother was disastrously ill _and_ poorly kept."

For a moment, Jose looked intimidated. "They've done the best they can—"

Zeref held up his hand and Jose stopped speaking. "Leave us."

"Your Majesty, with all due respect, he is our prisoner—"

" _Out._ Before I make you mine."

Jose's lips pursed together in rage, but, to Natsu's surprise, he signaled to Aria and together, they vacated Jose's quarters. Zeref took a moment to himself to gain control of his emotions. He looked around at the food and the art on the wall, all the glamour of the upper decks and none of the filth of the lower.

"If you like, I'll show you where I sleep." Natsu didn't mean to sound bratty, but he did. He chewed the fat part of his cheek, waiting for Zeref's retaliation. Maybe he'd use his magic, break this cursed ship, and Natsu could swim to shore, leaving them all behind. He'd slip into the shadows and live out the remainder of his life as a gutter rat.

Zeref locked eyes with him; they still glowed like embers; Natsu wanted to fidget. "Juvia told me of your conditions and spared no detail."

 _Juvia_ was Zeref's informant? He must have really looked pathetic if she took his woes to his brother. Or there was something deeper going on that he didn't grasp.

"Lady Lucy," Zeref waved her forward.

Natsu recalled the way Eileen threw him to the dogs and tried to regard Lucy with wary eyes. He could only see the girl he laid with, the one with gold hair and a sweet, gentle smile. The one that helped her people at great risk to herself.

 _The one that manipulated you_ , Natsu thought. _Remember. She's willing to do quite a bit to get what she wants._

But when she stepped forward and touched his temple, his bitterness turned from a boil to a low simmer. She smelled like lavender and hibiscus today like the oil was daubed on her wrists. He breathed it in and felt immediately calmer. It was magic craft, healers' tricks.

Lucy trailed her fingers down the side of his cheek and over his shoulders, down his arms to his one shackled and raw wrist. The other was looking worse and worse the longer it was free. Lucy rubbed her thumb over the chafed flesh. "Your restraints were too tight."

Natsu pulled out of her grasp and said nothing in case he _was_ being played by her and Eileen.

Lucy closed her eyes so Natsu couldn't see how bad that hurt her.

In seconds, Natsu could _feel_ the magic strumming through her. She glowed like a sun cresting the horizon. The entire cabin lit up. Only Zeref, watching from the sidelines, countered her brilliance, the black blot of his magic bringing balance. Light and dark on either side.

Lucy's magic crested, so strong, Natsu's skin pricked, and then her celestial spirit appeared.

Ophiuchus was so pale, she was almost non-existent, her skin so thin, Natsu could almost see the bones beneath, her eyebrows and hair so drained of colour, she nearly looked sickly. It was only when she opened her eyes, the blue of the cosmos, that he saw how alive she was.

He'd never appreciated her in her full glory, he was always half-conscious or half-dead. She was terrible and powerful and _Lucy_ , to be linked with her, must be, too. Natsu tried to see her, but Ophiuchus' brilliance was too much.

The spirit touched his wrists. They burned like he wore cuffs of acid. It was over before he could scream. She touched his chest then and the hollow hunger he'd been carting around for days fled. All his discomforts, things normal men were made to live with, vanished. Lucy was a goddess. Perhaps a deceitful one, but most gods were.

"Thank you, Ophiuchus," Lucy said from somewhere in the light. The celestial spirit stepped back from Natsu. Then she faded and Lucy stood before him once more. Her skin still glowed with the aftereffects of magic, making her painfully beautiful.

"And the tonic." Zeref didn't seem as awed by Lucy's display as Natsu thought he _should_ be. He seemed annoyed.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Lucy dug through the golden material of her robes and came out with a blue octagonal vial full to the brim.

"What is it?" Natsu asked warily, recalling Zeref's threats of sense-returning tonics.

"It will help with the seasickness," Lucy assured him.

"So, I'm staying here?" He sought out his brother, still doing all he could not to get caught in the trap that was Lucy.

Zeref said, "We'll discuss it once we have some privacy. Drink, brother."

Natsu was desperate enough to be free of this washy no equilibrium feeling that he sucked it back without further provocation. It tasted like the bottom of a firepit and clung to his throat going down like oil might. He sputtered and tried to spit it back up, but it was as though it had a mind of its own and slithered into his gut.

A pause, then Zeref asked, "Better?"

Natsu considered his state of being. He _did_ feel better. He allowed himself to glance at Lucy. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Zeref answered in Lucy's place. "Now, Lucy, leave us."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Lucy bowed, docile. No longer was she the scheming murderess.

Zeref watched her until the door was closed. He lifted his hand and black magic coiled out like smoke. It felt like a dirty bubble putting pressure on Natsu's ears, and when it popped, his head hurt.

"What was that?" His voice sounded dull to his ears, and in its echo, he heard his own voice again, like a ghost of him was speaking, asking Zeref, _'How was your ride?'_

"What's happening?"

' _I saw it was raining.'_

"It's a spell I learned for this voyage," Zeref said. His voice had an echo, too. It told Natsu that even his boots got wet. "It's a simple bit of anti-eavesdropping magic. You can I can speak normally while in this room. Anyone listening beyond the barrier of the door will hear a very different conversation."

It was sort of ingenious.

Zeref plucked an apple off the table and curled his nose. "Look at this pomp. Did that moron think this would impress me?"

"Did you cast the spell to insult my hosts?" Natsu said the last with quite a bit of scorn.

Zeref dropped the apple so hard, it would bruise. He faced his brother. "I cast it to confess."

"Confess?" Natsu repeated. Immediately, he paraded Zeref's crimes through his mind, those he knew and those he could only guess at. They made him feel weary and weak. "What have you done?"

"I didn't kill Lisanna Strauss, nor did she escape," Zeref began. "I released her with a mission in mind."

" _What_?" He _knew_ Lisanna was either loose or haunting him from the grave. He didn't suspect Zeref had _released_ her.

"She has a unique ability," Zeref answered. "With her magic, she's able to reach places other spies cannot. I offered her recompense and the assurance that the kingdom will do everything in its power to take her family from Bora's slave ring."

Generous, even for his brother. "You enlisted her to…?"

"Spy on Lady Eileen, of course. I have reason to believe she's trying to start a war between Fiore and Alvarez."

Natsu struggled to keep up. "Why would she want that?"

"She has long been my regent," Zeref said. "Once I came of age, she was stripped of the title, freedom and power she'd enjoyed. She asked to be my general. I told her I had plans for you to take that role. She seemed satisfied at first, but when you didn't perform the way I wanted you to and I opened the position up… she saw another opportunity and was greatly disappointed when Silver took command. She's where she should be, at my side as my sorceress. It's not where she wants to be, however."

Natsu wasn't making the connection. "How would war achieve her goal?"

"Our parents named her regent before they died. That decree still holds. It would give her a chance to seize the throne if it found itself suddenly without a King or a Crown Prince."

Zeref's words hung heavy in the air. "Regicide? She wouldn't."

Zeref's cheekbones got sharp as he pursed his lips. "Little brother. When dragons attack, how often are there any survivors?"

In his memory, hot red blood rested on cold white snow, steaming, stinking, and the dragon, like rotten meat and fetid swamp between its scales as it swooped, claws out, tearing flesh and bone as though it were tissue paper.

Natsu swallowed the bile rising in his throat. "We survived."

"I'm sure we weren't meant to."

"You think she was behind it?"

"I think that dragon was manipulated by magic," Zeref proposed. "That's only reason I can figure it would be so far out of its territory, and the only mage I know powerful enough to manipulate a dragon is Eileen Belserion."

The blows kept coming one after the other. Natsu struggled to process Zeref's words. "Are you sure?"

"Reasonably."

Lucy's spell had made him strong but Zeref's words were draining it away. Natsu had to hold Jose's desk to keep himself standing.

Zeref was still talking, saying things like, _'I'm doing what I can to keep it from coming to blows. I must name her a traitor before she can incite a war.'_

Natsu clung to his words. "Why war?"

"There are many ways to kill a king," Zeref said. "And only a few ways Lady Eileen would feel comfortable doing it. She's a sorceress. Magic is her fare. I've been careful, ensuring we're never alone together, carefully guarding myself and my food of poison and magic. War means new people in the castle. Changing of guards, rations. With preparations going on, it would be easier to stage an accident."

"Perhaps you're just being paranoid…" Natsu tried. Zeref _was_ overly cautious at times. Couldn't this be misguided paranoia?

Zeref shook his head with narrowed eyes. "It was Lady Eileen that demanded you raid that Duke's home, wasn't it?"

Natsu opened his mouth to say yes, but he couldn't get the word out; Lady Eileen told him not to speak of her, and he still could not, not with any precision, anyway.

"It belongs to one Duke Jellal Fernandez of Crocus, Fiore's capital city. His courting of Erza Scarlet, Lady Eileen's daughter, was well-documented. When he asked for her hand, Lady Eileen denied him. Now her daughter is missing?" Zeref began to pace over Jose's glossed floor. Each time his heeled boot fell, Natsu winced.

"I was suspicious," Zeref continued, "so I sent Lisanna to investigate. She was able to confirm that Erza was alive and well. This entire thing has been staged. I'm sure even Jellal is in league with Eileen if it means winning her approval of marriage."

Natsu's head was spinning. All he could think was, "What about Lucy?" Where did she fit into all this?

"I'm sure she's Eileen's creature," Zeref said with certainty.

Natsu's head spun. "Then why bring her here? Why get her to make me a tonic?" If what Zeref was saying was true, she could have killed him.

Zeref stopped pacing to look at Natsu. "You know the adage. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Besides, she wouldn't dare attack the prince in front of the king with an army waiting for the delegation to make a move they didn't like."

He seemed so certain. Natsu didn't know what to believe anymore.

Zeref grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it. "Play your part here and I will take care of everything else. I'll bring you home in a few days. Hopefully, all this will have blown over by then."

"You could be in danger," Natsu said. "I should be home _now_ , where we can take care of each other. Banish the sorceress. Or imprison her." He revisited the shadows where Eileen tormented her prisoner with claws as sharp as steel. Was there a prison in the world strong enough to restrain her?

Zeref shook his head. "She must not know we know. You'll say nothing. _Do_ nothing. Do you understand?"

Natsu opened his mouth to argue more but Silver tapped on the door, interrupting.

"Enter," Zeref called.

"Your Majesty. Highness." Silver bowed only as much as he needed to before standing again. There was tension on his face. "Word has gotten out that you're in the city and your subjects in the Western slums are congregating. We should return to the castle."

Zeref squeezed Natsu's shoulder again. "Take care, brother."

"Are you able to return to the castle undetected?" Natsu worried.

"We have a safe route in place," Zeref told him.

Any time any royal ventured out of the castle, they were supposed to have a contingency return plan that usually involved underground travel if the streets became unsafe or air travel if those routes were cut off. There were mages in Zeref's employ powerful enough to mask his movements no matter which route he took.

"Be safe," Natsu said.

"You'll be released soon," Zeref promised again. He joined Silver and together, with Lucy in tow, they left the ship.

Natsu watched for as long as he could, seeing Zeref leave the docks and then mount his horse. He watched Lucy, too, trying to see her deceit. How much of Eileen's plans was she privy to?

His thoughts were a muddled mess as he tried to sort through what he'd learned. Lady Eileen, responsible for their parents' death? Was it _possible_? Of course, anything was possible when you put power and influence on the line. But was it _probable_?

In his heart lived the boy that watched Lady Eileen torment her prisoner, and that boy said _without a doubt._

* * *

Jose let Natsu stay above deck for an hour, watching the mob move through the city and the smoke that twisted through the sky as they set fire to things they didn't like.

When the sun set in the dirty grey sky, Jose escorted Natsu back to the hull of the ship. He sat in silence and darkness with a renewed sense of self. His time was no longer unbroken agony. He was able to keep track of the waves pounding against the ship and the footsteps overhead. The voices in the distance. The mob that gathered in the West had moved its way through the city. They were furious; the sound of their voices beat against the water and the water carried it offshore to Natsu's waiting ear.

He wasn't sure when, exactly, he was positive something was wrong. It was just a feeling he had, deep-seated in his bones.

Dull early-morning light filtered into the hull as someone pulled open the door. Natsu struggled to see in the gloom. He recognized Jose by his overpowering cologne.

Natsu had been slumped against a sack of grain, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. He pushed himself into a sitting position. "What is it?" His voice was rough from disuse.

"I just received word; the king's party did not make it back to the castle." Jose's words were clinical and so was his voice. "His Majesty the King was struck down in the street."


End file.
